


Secret Love Song

by colour_outside_the_lines



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cheating, Drama, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, Friendship, No Lesbians Die, No Lesbians Were Harmed in the Writing of this Fic, Romance, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, eddie is alive, no ghosts, no one is dead, school / college au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:34:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 79,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27767590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colour_outside_the_lines/pseuds/colour_outside_the_lines
Summary: When Dani Clayton signs up for the foreign exchange program along with her long-term boyfriend Edmund O’Mara, there had been many things she was expecting; a change of pace, some more life experience, and a sense of independence all at the age of eighteen, she had never expected that she would be forced to have a long-distance relationship or that she would fall in love with the daughter of the host family she was staying with.MODERN DAY AU!!!HIGH SCHOOL/ COLLEGE AU!!!
Relationships: Dani Clayton & Edmund O'Mara, Dani Clayton & Jamie, Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 324
Kudos: 441





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Modern-day AU!! Dani and Jamie are both turn 18 before their relationship begins in this fic Dani would be a senior in high school if she were still in America, and Jamie is in her final year of college in England studying for her A-Levels before going to university. Rebecca is only 17 (almost eighteen) and Peter is 18 Owen and Hannah are 17 (almost 18), any other adult characters in Bly Manor will be teachers at the school (along with some OCs)

**Why can't I hold you in the street? Why can't I kiss you on the dance floor? I wish that it could be like that, why can't it be like that? 'Cause I'm yours- _Little Mix, Secret Love Song_**

* * *

**Prologue**

Danielle Clayton couldn’t remember a time in her life when her mother had been just that, a mother. Ever since Dani’s father passed away when she was a mere eight-years-old her mother, Karen had been distant, estranged, bitter, and one hell of a mean drunk. Her mother had hardly been around while she was growing up, she’d flaked on her countless times; not showing up when or where she’d said she would and she had often failed to follow through on plans they’d made whenever she felt that she had a better offer, leaving Dani alone for the most part of her life.

The odd times that her mother had been an active part of Dani’s childhood, she had always wanted to act like more of a friend to the younger woman, rather than acting like an actual parent. As a child, Dani had never minded that too much; she loved getting to spend any amount of time with her mother that she could, and she’d found that she loved her mother treating her like an adult.

Of course, it helped that Dani had seemed to mature much quicker than other children her age, she figured that losing one parent, and having another never really be present in her life had given her no other choice than to mature quickly; there had been many times she’d had to be her own parent growing up.

There’d also been many times that she’d had to look after her mother and be the one to care for her, especially after a night of heavy drinking when the older woman had taken things too far (as she often did).

She had always tried to see the best in her mother, but there were some days that it just seemed like an impossible thing to do, and after eighteen years of her mother dipping in and out of her life, Dani had reached her limit.

That’s how she’d ended up on the plane to England, ready to take part in the foreign exchange program that her school had offered the senior class that year, for reasons of _multi-culturalism_.

Of course, Dani had loved the sound of getting to spend a year overseas and had rushed to talk to her mother about it. The conversation had gone exactly as Dani had expected it would, and the idea of her taking part in the program became a strong point of contention for Dani and her mother and had spawned countless arguments between them. Karen’s distaste for Dani being away from home for so long hadn’t stopped the blonde from putting her name down on the sign-up sheet, if anything it only spurred her on and added to the list of reasons Dani wanted to do this.

Once Dani had put her name down on the sign-up sheet, her long-term boyfriend (and best friend), Edmund O’Mara had followed her lead, saying he didn’t want to be away from her for a year.

While Dani had appreciated the sentiment of his actions, she couldn’t help but feel smothered by her boyfriend’s need to be close to her at all times. She had tried getting him to change his mind, saying they'd easily make the long-distance work and that with the technology they had, and with FaceTiming sessions, it really wouldn't seem all that bad, but still, Edmund had been adamant that he wasn't letting her do this alone. 

Three months after signing up for the program, the list of countries they were being sent to were posted, and much to Dani’s relief (but Edmund’s dismay), they found out that while they would be in the same country, they would be living in different cities. At first, Edmund had tried to appeal to the school to change either his or Dani's location to be in the same place, but after a lot of convincing and persuading, Dani had managed to get Edmund to agree to stick with their chosen locations, reminding him that they would FaceTime any chance they got. 

Four months (and countless fights with her mother) later they were getting ready to start what was possibly the biggest adventures of their lives so far, they had been armed with all the information they needed on their families and they were ready to go. Dani was still entirely too thankful that she and Edmund would be staying in different cities and that she would have some space to breathe. 

She loved him, she was sure that she did, but he had been right there with her almost all day, every day for as long as she could remember, and while she enjoyed spending time with him, she also knew the importance of space, _Absence makes the heart grow fonder_ she had reminded him time and time again. She had no experience or knowledge of if that was true or not, but it had certainly helped her with her agenda to get Edmund to agree to stay in a different city without her, even if that city was only two hours away. 

For the full eighteen hours long journey, a cocktail of nerves and excitement had coursed through her body, making it hard for her to sleep or focus on anything other than the year she had ahead of her, while she had been hoping to be sent somewhere with some cultural diversity, she was still happy to be getting out of that small Minnesotan town, a chance that very few people she knew ever got.

In her hometown, everyone seemed destined for the same cookie-cutter life.

Marriage, a nice house with a white picket fence, a family pet, and two-point-four children, usually achieved all before the age of thirty. It had been the life that her mother had once been heading towards, it was the life that Edmund’s mother had already succeeded in having and had been the path that she herself was on in her relationship with Edmund.

In general, it seemed to be the dream life of every girl in her class, every day she would hear her friends, and the girls around her talking about how they couldn’t wait for marriage and a family.

But to Dani, that seemed like so much more of a death sentence than the dream life, and had, in reality, been another driving factor of her wanting to spend a year in a different country.

She needed space from her mother, and she needed to be out of the town that seemed to suck people in and never let them go again. Every one she knew had married their childhood sweetheart or had plans to, and while she was happy with Edmund, the thought of settling down at such a young age made her stomach knot and a lump rise in her throat, choking her slightly.

There had been times that Edmund had tried to talk to her about their future, and she had always shrugged it off, saying she thought they were too young to be planning or even thinking about things like that.

If she was being honest, the thought of settling down, and staying in the only place she had ever known, never seeing anything else of the world, terrified her more than she had ever wanted to admit.

Whenever she thought about having _that_ life with Edmund, graduating high school and college, rushing to get married just so she could become something of a Stepford Wife always made her feel like she was wondering around, in a long, dark, and winding jungle, with no end in sight. Just her, and a beast that was chasing her down and gaining on her as each day passed.

She wondered, if, under the surface, everyone around her felt like this too, that maybe, that feeling of anxiety was all just part of growing up.

“Danielle, hello,” The sound of the soft voice, followed by fingers snapping in her face pulled her from her musings, bringing her attention back to her surroundings, she furrowed her eyebrows slightly, as he looked to Edmund, who watched with an expectant expression on his face.

“Yeah?” She replied softly, her mind still reeling slightly.

“I think that’s your ride,” He smiled pointing to a dark-haired woman, holding a makeshift, cardboard sign with the name _Danielle Clayton_ written on it in black permanent marker, a heavy sigh seemed to leave his body as he looked back to the blonde-haired woman, “I guess this is where you leave me.”

Dani nodded her head slowly, "Yeah... it's gonna be weird not seeing you every day," She admitted with a small shrug, "I mean, you've always just been there, and now..." She trailed off, giving him a tight-lipped smile. 

"I did try and get it so we could be in the same city, but you didn't want that," He reminded her. 

"Yeah, and I stand by what I said," She replied, "I think that it's gonna be good for us to have some separation... it gives us a taste of what it could be like if we go to different colleges, which we might... at least if we do this, we'll know we can handle it when that time comes." 

He rolled his eyes, "You have a point, I guess, but still... what happens if the host family you're staying with has some really cute son, with a British accent and he steals you from me?" 

Dani furrowed her eyebrows slightly, “I don’t know, kind of sounds like you’re the one that wants to be with him since you think he’s cute,” She joked, he gave her an unamused look, “Don’t worry about it, that is _never_ going to happen, okay?”

He looked over her shoulder, at the dark-haired woman, who had a bored expression stamped on her face, it looked like she would rather be anywhere than Leeds Bradford airport that late August morning. Edmund nodded his head slowly, “Yeah,” He replied, though there was something to his tone of voice that let Dani know he wasn’t entirely sure of what he was saying.

“Do you trust me?” She asked, he nodded his head slowly, “Then show me you do," she gave him a soft smile, "Look at me, I'm totally breezy and for all I know there's gonna be some gorgeous, Kiera Knightley type girl where you're staying, but I trust you completely... so it doesn't bother me that there's a chance you'll be living with someone that's gorgeous... can you do the same for me, please?" 

"Yes," He replied, nodding his head, "I can... although, it has to be a little easier for you, because no matter who is living in that house with me, there is no way she is going to be as gorgeous as you... you're the most beautiful girl in the world, Dani, and I think you know that." 

The blonde rolled her eyes, but smiled despite herself, "Thank you... but that was lame, even for you," She joked, "I'll text you when I get where ever I am going, and hopefully be able to call you later, okay?" She asked, and again Edmund nodded his head, "Okay, bye," She waved and began to turn away from the dark-haired man. 

“Is that really all the goodbye that I get?” Edmund asked, a small smile on his face.

Dani rolled her eyes, and gave him a quick kiss before, speaking again, “I really do need to go now,” She looked over her shoulder, “If not I think that girl might just leave and never look back,” She joked as she watched the brunette sigh in exasperation. She couldn't help but wonder how long she had already been waiting for her. 

Edmund nodded his head, “Yeah she looks like she’s gonna be a lot of fun.”

Dani smiled, “Yeah… I let you know all about it later… text me when you get to where you’re staying?”

“Promise.”

She gave him another quick kiss, and a tight hug before walking towards the dark-haired woman, “Hey,” She smiled, stopping just in front of her.

“Uh, hi,” The dark-haired woman replied before looking over her shoulder, Dani quirked an eyebrow at the girl, who looked back to her and gave her a questioning look, “Can I help you with something?"

Dani nodded her head and pointed at the sign in her hands, “I hope so since you’re walking around with my name on display… I’m assuming you’re either part of my host family or you're just a very good stalker?”

“You’re Danielle Clayton?” The dark-haired woman asked, a small smirk spreading across her face, “Huh, I don’t know what I was expecting, but, uh, you weren’t it,” She admitted shaking her head, she lowered the sign and smiled.

“Well, I hope this is a nice surprise for you,” She replied with a slightly nervous laugh, if she was being honest, the dark-haired girl wasn’t what she had been expecting either. She had expected someone older, a couple perhaps, or even a family.

She had never expected to see an admittedly, attractive dark-haired woman, roughly the same age as her standing alone in the airport waiting for her arrival.

The brunette nodded her head slowly, her eyes scanning the length of her body, “Uh, yeah… you could say that,” She smiled.

There was something about the way she looked at her, and the way she smiled that sent Dani’s heart skyrocketing in a way that she had never experienced before, even when Edmund looked at her, her heart rate had never reached this level.

“Well that’s good then,” Dani replied, mentally kicking herself for not thinking of something better, or more substantial to say.

“I’m Jamie by the way,” The dark-haired woman said, pulling Dani from her own thoughts, “Jamie Taylor,” She introduced herself.

“Oh, it’s nice to meet you, Jamie,” Dani held her hand out to the other girl who shook it once, a small smirk on her face, “What?” She asked, “What’s with the smirk?”

Jamie shook her head slowly, “Nothing,” She admitted, “It’s just the handshake seemed _very_ formal… especially given the circumstance,” She smiled again, and Dani found herself growing very fond of that smile in the short time that she had been around her, “You really don’t get many of those around here… but it was a nice touch,” There was a beat of silence before Jamie spoke again, “Are you ready to get out of here and head home?”

Dani nodded her head and sighed, “Yes, I am exhausted,” She admitted, “A none-stop eighteen-hour journey seemed like a good idea at the time, but I have to say I am regretting it a little now.”

“You didn’t sleep on the plane?” Jamie asked as she and Dani began to walk to the exit of the airport.

The blonde shook her head slowly, “Nope,” She admitted, “I was a little too nervous, and excited,” She divulged, “I’m regretting not trying a little harder now though… I’m also regretting not taking my mom up on the offer to take those sleeping pills,” She joked.

“Well lucky for you I only live, like, five minutes away from the airport,” Jamie informed her, “I am sure you’ll be able to get your head down, well if my little brother will let you,” she chuckled.

“You have a brother?”

The dark-haired woman nodded her head slowly, “I have two,” She replied, “My older brother, Denny, just moved out, rather than going to uni like our dad wanted him to, he got a job and just left instead... my younger brother, Mikey just turned eleven... he gets pretty excited over stuff, and I think you're gonna be something he gets _very_ excited over... but I'll try and keep him out of your way as much as possible so that you can have some space." 

"Oh, well thank you, but you don't have to do that... it's his house, I'm just staying there," Dani replied with a small smile. 

"Alright," Jamie smiled, "What about you?" She asked, the blonde turned her head slightly to look at her, "Do you have any siblings that you've left back home?" 

Dani shook her head slowly, "No, I'm an only child," She shrugged, "I did always want a brother or sister, but I was never lucky enough to get one," She admitted. 

"I don't know, being an only child must have some perks, right?" 

Dani shrugged, “I guess,” She admitted, “It’s lonely sometimes, but it’s not all bad,” She smiled, her brow furrowing slightly when Jamie stopped in front of an olive-green truck.

“Well, this is us,” Jamie informed her, patting the bed of the truck, “Do you want some help with your stuff?” She asked. 

“Uh, yes, thank you,” The blonde nodded, as they began to put Dani's luggage into the truck, “It’ll all be safe in there, right?” She asked, looking into the bed of the truck, “Nothing is going to fall out?”

Jamie nodded her head, “Yeah, fairly certain, it’s almost like that’s what the bed of the truck is for,” She replied with a slightly teasing tone to her voice.

“Touché,” Dani replied before she looked back at her stuff.

“Seriously, don’t worry about it,” Jamie assured her, “I live five minutes away from here, and I won’t be driving anywhere near fast enough for anything to happen, okay… so just relax.”

Dani took a breath and nodded her head slowly, “I guess I don’t really have much of a choice, do I?” She asked, a small smile pulling at her lips.

Jamie shook her head slowly, “No… not unless you feel like walking back to Horsforth," She replied, Dani gave her a tight-lipped smile before walking past her and opening the passenger side door, the brunette smiled and nodded her head, "Well done, you made the right choice," She informed her before she moved around to the driver's side of the truck and climbed inside. 

Dani quickly buckled herself into the truck and turned her head to face Jamie, who was scrolling through the apps on her phone, she quickly replied to a text before locking her phone and placing it in one of the cup holders for safekeeping before she pulled out of the parking lot and into the busy street, only to find themselves instantly stuck in a small amount of traffic as other people tried to file out of the airport. 

It became obvious to Dani that the conversation was over. She felt her heart sink slightly at the thought of spending the car ride with Jamie in silence, she was hoping the dark-haired woman would continue to talk to her, for no other reason than she just wanted to hear that accent some more. 

It was so unlike what she was used to hearing on TV shows and films set in England, but if she was being honest with herself she much preferred it 

Dani frowned when she saw heavy raindrops splatter against the windscreen of the truck, spreading smaller flecks of water across the glass. The larger raindrops would make rhythmic taps as they connected with the glass, "Y'know," Dani said, trying her best to strike up some conversation, "I'd heard it rained a lot in England, but I didn't expect it to be raining my first day here." 

Jamie smiled, "It rains _a lot_ here," She joked, "I'm pretty sure in Yorkshire the sky is a permanent shade of grey... so don't expect too much from the last week of summer." 

"Really? There'll be no sun at all?" 

"No, there will be," Jamie nodded her head, "Just not much, and when it is warm, it's horrible and muggy with it." 

"Muggy?" 

"Humid," Jamie explained, "It's not a nice heat." 

"Oh, I'm used to that... I'm from Minnesota." 

"Then you should be fine here."

"But summer is almost over, no?" 

Jamie nodded her head, "Yeah, but we get some warm days in October and September too, I always remember the first two weeks of school having better weather than the summer holidays did when I was a kid," She explained, "The weather starts turning colder in November time, but, uh, if you're from Minnesota I wouldn't worry too much about the cold here."

"Yeah, I think I'll be able to handle it," Dani nodded her head. 

She allowed herself to settle back into the seat of the truck, closing her eyes, and trying to relax as best she could. She only had a week to settle into her new surroundings until school started up again, she had been enrolled at the local high school, Horsforth Trinity and All Saints, and would be joining the A level students in their final year of sixth form.

The school had informed her that she would need to take five classes to study, at the end of the year, each one of her classes would have an exam, for Dani, it had been easy to pick five classes she wanted to study, she had quickly settled on; English Literature, Maths, Biology, History, and for a little more fun, Theatre Studies.

Though the schooling system in the UK was different than the one she was used to, and admittedly, a little confusing to her, she couldn’t wait for school to begin so she could fully start her new adventure, even if she had to go it alone, she figured that would all just be part of the fun.

Her phone buzzing in her pocket pulled her attention away from her musing, she frowned slightly when she saw the name flashing across the screen, she hadn’t been expected a message from the other woman so soon.

**From mom: Thank you for letting me know you landed safely. I love you and miss you already.**

Danielle Clayton couldn’t remember a time in her life when her mother had been just that, a mother. Ever since Dani’s father passed away when she was a mere eight-years-old, her mother had been distant, estranged, bitter, and one hell of a mean drunk. Her mother, Karen had hardly been around while she was growing up, she’d flaked on her countless times; not showing up when or where she’d said she would, she had often failed to follow through on plans they’d made whenever she felt that she had a better offer, leaving Dani alone for the most part of her life.

But, as she read the text message from the older woman, she realised just how much she was going to miss her.


	2. One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a note to say most chapters will have a flashback at the start of them now. The flashbacks will either be of Dani's childhood or her relationship with Edmund. Or in some cases Jamie's childhood and what life was like for her. All flashbacks will be indicated by being in italics.
> 
> Also, TRIGGER WARNINGS for some slightly internalised homophobia, and compulsory heterosexuality in this fic for Dani!!

**One**

_Annoyed wasn’t the word, furious wasn’t the word either; Dani Clayton could not for the life of her find the right words to describe the current expression on her mother’s face, the tone of voice she was using, or the emotions she was exhibiting. She had never seen the older woman like this before, and it was all because she had mentioned signing up for the foreign exchange program set up by her school._

_She had known that her mother would be highly opinionated._

_She was opinionated about every little thing that Dani wanted to do with her life, always making her true feelings known to her daughter. She had known that this time it would be no different to any other._

_She had just hoped that her mother would be a little more supportive of her choices, that she would be excited at the thought of her daughter taking the opportunity of a lifetime. But what she had hoped for and what she had been met with were a stark contrast from each other._

Hope breeds eternal misery, _she mused._

_It appeared now, that statement was far truer than Dani had ever thought._

_She couldn’t be sure how long she had been sitting on the couch, watching her mother as she paced across the living room, shaking her head slowly, her icy-blue eyes starring daggers into Dani’s face every time she passed her._

_Every time she opened her mouth to say something, her words failed her. She had never known herself to be at such a loss for words before, but this was different from anything she had ever experienced in her life._

_“Do you really have nothing to say for yourself?” Karen asked, coming to a stop, turning to face Dani who sat chewing on her fingers, the same way she always did when she was anxious, scared, or being confronted by anyone._

_"It’s really not as bad as you’re making it out to be.”_

_"_ _Not as bad as I’m making it out to be?” Karen asked, her jaw tensing slightly, “You’re thinking of leaving the country for a year,” She shook her head and shrugged her shoulders, “I really thought you had more about you than this, but I guess not."_

 _"_ _A lot of people study abroad; you’re making it sound like I’m the first person in the world to think about doing something like this.”_

_“I just don’t understand why on Earth you would want to live in a different country, by yourself with people you don’t even know for a whole year… what is the appeal of that?” She asked._

_“Multi-culturalism?” She offered with a small shrug, using the same reason her school had for them even taking part in the exchange program. She knew it was feeble, and that her mother wouldn’t care even the slightest bit about_ _multi-culturalism,_ _but she also knew that her mother would think even less about the real reasons._

_After all, how was she supposed to tell her mother that one of the reasons she wanted to leave for the year was because of her? Because she wasn’t sure how much more of their strained relationship she could take. How was she supposed to tell her that she couldn't stand the thought of spending another day in that house or that small one-horse-town?_

_She knew her mother would never understand the feeling of impending dread she experienced at the thought of being trapped there for the rest of her life._

_Multi-culturalism?” Karen asked, the distaste evident in her voice, as her eyebrows furrowed tightly over her narrowed eyes, “There are plenty of cultures here, just look around you. You don’t have to leave to see different cultures.”_

_“Mom, this place has_ _zero_ _culture, and even if it did have culture, I would be well accustomed to it by now, I have lived here my whole life, and I just want to see some more of the world—"_

_“You don’t need to see more of the world,” Her mother cut her off, shaking her head once more._

_“I didn’t say I needed to,” Dani replied, “I said that I wanted to. I don’t want to look back on my life and think_ what if,” She divulged, “ _I want to be able to look back on my life and say_ I did that _.”_

_“You can do that without leaving.”_

_“I don’t think I can,” She shrugged, “I want to see more of the world, I really don’t see what the issue with me leaving is, I’ll be leaving for college next year anyway… this just gives me a head start, it helps me with independence before I’m thrown in at the deep end and have no idea what to do.”_

_Karen scoffed, “At least when you’re in college you’ll be in this country, you’ll be in a well-established institute. Not across the world somewhere living in a different country,_ _alone_ _… really, Danielle, I thought you had more sense than this… how stupid do you have to be to sign up to something when you have no idea where you’ll be sent or who you’ll be with.”_

_Dani shook her head slowly, “It’s only for a year and—”_

_“A year living with a family you know nothing about,” Karen snapped, cutting her daughter off once more, “They could be serial killers or god knows what else.”_

_“Yeah, but what are the odds of both me_ _and_ _the host family being serial killers?” Dani offered with a small chuckle, hoping to defuse some of the tension, though the steely look in her mother’s eyes soon cut her off from her light laughter._

_“That’s not funny,” The older woman shook her head, “Do you know how many people go missing each year while traveling?”_

_“Yes, I do, but mom that can happen anywhere, do you know how many people go missing here each year, it's not just something that happens overseas, adults and children alike go missing here too... I am sure t_ _hat the families we’ll be staying with will be heavily vetted, the school isn’t going to risk sending us to people who haven’t had background checks… so many people do stuff like this mom, I trust it.”_

_“Well, I’m glad that you do,” Karen retorted sardonically, there was a beat of silence before Karen spoke again, "What does Edmund think about this?” She asked, “What does he have to say about you jetting off for a year?”_

_“He doesn’t know yet,” Dani mumbled shaking her head slowly, “I had the idea, and I wanted to tell you. I wanted your opinion on it,” She admitted with a small shrug._

_Karen scoffed and shook her head slowly, “Well, just wait until you do tell him, I highly doubt he’ll be thrilled about you leaving the country_ _alone_ _to stay with people you have never met and know nothing about, I bet he’ll have a lot to say on the matter.”_

_“Maybe so,” Dani replied, “But I highly doubt that would change anything,” She divulged._

_If she was being entirely honest, she hadn’t given a single thought to what Eddie would think. When she’d first had the idea to sign up for the program, he hadn’t even crossed her mind._

_It registered with her somewhere, that maybe it wasn’t a normal reaction to have about her partner when it came to her leaving the country, and not seeing him for a year. But that realisation was something, that she didn’t want to dwell on, for fear of what it might actually mean for them._

_“It wouldn’t change anything?” Karen asked, “So even if he isn’t okay with you being part of the program, you’ll do it anyway?” She could hear the disbelief in her mother’s voice, almost as if, the thought of Dani having her own mind on something made no sense to her at all._

_“I don’t know mom, maybe not,” Dani shrugged, “This is something that I really want to do for_ me, it’s something that I feel like I _have_ _to do mom, and if he can’t support me in that then… I guess that makes two of you, right?”_

_It appeared that Karen Clayton was, for the very first time in her life, speechless. Dani could tell by her shocked expression, that her response had not been expected, she could tell that using Edmund and his feelings on the matter against her had been her Hail Mary pass at the buzzer._

_Edmund had been the one thing her mother was so sure would get Dani to change her mind, and she guessed, on some level, it should have worked._

_It should have made her think twice about what she was doing, and who and what she was leaving behind, but the more she thought of staying behind simply for Edmunds's sake, the more it felt like the beast in the jungle was gaining on her, breathing down her neck._

_That in and of itself only made her more determined to get out while she could, for however long she could. The thought of having some freedom and exploration outside of that small midwestern town was more appealing to Dani than anything else she had ever known._

_She was sure, if her mother knew her true intentions of having the year abroad as a foreign exchange student, and then leaving the state to go to college and never come back again even after graduation, that the older woman would surely explode._

_Every time she and her mother spoke about potential colleges, her mother would always show her brochures or websites for colleges in Minnesota, pushing her agenda on her, and trying to do all she could to keep her daughter close._

_She knew her mother had never left the state, she knew that her mother was happy where she was and that she always had been, she also knew, that the life her mother had was not the life she wanted for herself._

_Nor was the life of anyone around her._

_Dani could not think of anything more miserable than staying in the same place her whole life._

_“I guess that’s that then?” Karen asked, her harsh voice cutting through the heavy silence that had fallen between them, she shrugged her shoulders, “You’re going to do this no matter what the people who care about you think?”_

_There it was, the guilt trip, the same thing her mother did whenever she was floundering and struggling to get Dani onto her way of thinking._

_Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah mom, I’m doing it no matter what,” She sighed, “And I know that might be hard for you to hear, but I don’t know what else to tell you.”_

_“You’re being selfish.”_

_Those three words hurt Dani more than she cared to admit, and they hurt her for a myriad of reason; she didn’t want to think of herself as being selfish for taking an opportunity that was presented to her, she hated that her mother was so desperate to keep her close that she would resort to childish mind games and cruelty._

_She did it every time she wanted to control her daughter’s life, every time she wanted to cling on to her only child. Dani knew she did it to prevent her own loneliness, to keep Dani as close as she could because, without her, she didn’t have much else at all._

_Dani would have been lying if she said that it didn’t serve the purpose her mother wanted it to. Her mother wanted her to feel bad, wanted her to feel guilty for the choice she was making, but it also served the purpose of making Dani want to do this even more than she already did._

_She took a deep breath and shrugged her shoulders, “Maybe so,” She nodded her head slowly, “But, I just feel like this is something I have to do.” She divulged, “And I am really sorry if that hurts you but, this is my life, and you have to let me live it the way I want to.”_

_Karen shook her head before leaving the room without another word, or another glance at Dani, and she knew, at that moment that this was something her mother was never going to be fully on board with, but at least the argument was over for now, and that in itself was a win for Dani._

_No matter how small the win was._

_She could work on the rest later._

* * *

Red, brown, grey, and green. Red, brown, grey, and green.

Those three colours passed by Dani in a blur during the short drive to Jamie’s house, all the streets, all the houses, and all the yards looked exactly the same as each other. The neighbourhood was littered with the same red-brown brickwork and the same style of house over and over again. The sidewalks were even the same colour as the sky and clouds that day, a dull, miserable grey, Dani couldn’t help but think that everything looked so dreadfully boring that late August morning. She hadn’t exactly known what she was expecting from the British suburbs, all she knew was that it wasn’t this.

Dani wondered, if _all_ British streets looked this way, or if this was simply a trait of Horsforth, the place she would now be calling her home for the next year, a place, that if she was being entirely honest with herself, looked just as mundane as the place she was desperately trying to escape from.

She made a mental note to ask Edmund to send her a picture of the house and street he’d be calling his home, once he finally got there, she knew that while she had been lucky in her host family living so close to the airport, Edmund had not.

Of course, this was partly his fault, there had been an airport closer to the city he’d be staying in, he had simply chosen to get the same flight she had, saying he wanted to spend as much time with her as possible before they were separated.

She knew how much Edmund had wanted to walk through this experience with her. All the while she had wanted to experience things on her own for the first time in her life. For as long as she could remember, Edmund had been by her side. He had seen her at her best, her worst, had ridden all the ups and downs of her life with her. Helping her through all the issues with her mother. He had even signed up to be an exchange student with her. 

But she hadn't wanted that, she hadn't wanted to spend her year of freedom and exploration with Edmund by her side. 

Dani couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty at that.

_You're being selfish._

There it was again, those three words her mother had used on her all those months earlier. They were still just as effective as they had been the first time she had heard them. For Dani, being called selfish was one of the worst things anyone could call her. 

She had never wanted to be a selfish person, in her life she had done all she could to actively not be selfish. She had put others before herself time and time again, often sacrificing her own happiness, her own wants, and needs, all so that someone else could be happy instead, usually her mother or Edmund, it hurt her to think that after all these years, someone could see her as selfish simply because she did something for herself. 

She had never been selfish. 

She refused to be selfish. 

All she wanted was to see what else the world had to offer besides her hometown, the same group of people she had known and been friends with since birth, and on some level, she wanted to see what else the world had to offer outside of her relationship with Edmund, she loved him, and he loved her, but that didn't mean they had to spend every minute, of every day together, she had always felt they needed a life outside of each other too. 

As the truck came to a stop in the narrow driveway, Dani felt her heart rate increase as a wave of excitement, mixed with nerves washed over her; she had no idea what awaited her on the other side of that door, all she knew was that she couldn’t wait to find out.

This was it. No turning back now. Her adventure had officially begun.

“Well, this is us,” Jamie sighed, her soft voice pulling Dani from her thoughts, “You ready?” She asked.

Dani smiled and nodded her head quickly, she was more than ready for this, she was more than ready to start at the new school, and see the British way of learning, she was excited to meet new people, and have totally new experiences.

The one thing she wasn’t looking forward to, was having to wear the uniform she had been expected to buy for the school; a black skirt, white shirt, navy blue tie and cardigan, it, much like the street she currently found herself on, seemed boring.

She just hoped that college itself wouldn’t be, with her being able to choose the five lessons she wanted, and only having to do those five classes, she had high hopes for what education could be like in England.

Jamie helped her with her things, grabbing the biggest, and by proxy, the heaviest of all of Dani’s luggage, “You really don’t have to help me with all of this,” Dani sighed, “I feel awful you carrying it.”

The brunette shrugged, “It’s only a short distance, besides, you’ve just had a long-haul journey and no sleep, no offense, but you look knackered,” She commented with a small smile.

“I don’t know what that means, but somehow that was still offensive,” Dani replied with a small smile, “But uh, thank you for helping me with my bags.”

“Don’t mention it,” Jamie smiled, as she turned on her heel and headed towards the house.

Something else Dani had noticed about all of the houses on this street, was that they all had another house joined on to them, standing in twos, each with a front yard separated only by a fence. 

Dani stayed close behind Jamie as they walked through the front door, “Dad, we’re back!” Jamie called as she kicked the door closed, and locked it behind her, she waited a moment before receiving no answer, “Dad… we’re here,” She tried again, only to receive no answer, she sighed before pushing open the door to their right and walking into the living room.

As they walked into the room, the first thing Dani noticed was the large TV sitting at one end, with a couch, and a large chair facing it, sitting on the couch was a small, boy, with dark, straight hair, unlike his sister’s curly hair.

“He’s not home,” The small boy explained, never looking at his sister, “It’s no-good shouting him,” He sighed, shaking his head slowly, “He left about five minutes ago.”

“Where is he?” She asked, her dark eyebrows furrowing tightly.

He shrugged, “I don’t know, think he took the other truck somewhere, thinks it needed servicing or something,” Dani could hear the boredom in his tone of voice as he spoke to Jamie, “Who’s this 'we' you were talking about anyway?” He asked.

He turned his head to face Jamie, his eyes widening slightly when he noticed the blonde woman standing beside her.

“Mikey, this is Danielle, she’s the exchange kid I told you about,” Jamie explained with a small smile, watching her brother closely as his eyes scanned the length of Dani’s body before they settled back on her face, “Danielle, this is my little brother, Mikey.”

A small smile spread across his face before he pushed himself up from his spot on the couch and moved around to stand in front of the blonde woman, “Hiya, Danielle, you alright?” He asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine thanks,” She smiled nodding her head, “But you can just call me Dani.”

“Alright then, it’s nice to meet you, Dani… you’re here for the whole year, right?” He asked, the excitement becoming evident in his voice. 

“Yeah, I don’t leave until next August,” She shrugged her shoulders, “So you’re gonna have to put up with me for a really long time… sorry,” She teased with a slight chuckle.

Mikey shook his head, “Oh you don’t need to apologise for that _at all_ ,” He replied, his green eyes widening once more, he smiled before pulling his phone out of his pocket, “Did you have a good flight?" He asked, his thumbs tapping away at his phone, he glanced down at it, before looking back up at Dani, his eyes studying her face carefully, seemingly taking in every facet of it. 

"Yeah, it was good thank you, long but good... have you had a good morning?" She asked, feeling slightly nervous about the way Mikey was watching her so carefully, she had never really liked to be the center of attention, had never liked the feeling of having all eyes on her, and she hated it even more when she felt like she was being scrutinised. 

"Alright I guess... a bit better now you're here, like," He replied with a smirk. 

"Mikey," Jamie warned him, shaking her head slowly. 

"What?" He asked, turning his attention to Jamie, his eyes narrowing slightly, "She asked me how my day was so I told her," He held his hands up feigning innocence, "Am I not allowed to speak to people now?"

"You're allowed to talk to her, but you're being weird," Jamie sighed shaking her head slightly, "What are doing up at this time anyway... you don't usually surface from your cave until at least midday." 

Mikey sighed and rolled his eyes, "Dad made me get up when he had to take the other truck in, said I had to be awake for when you and the Yank got here," He shook his head slowly, "Personally, I don't see why I had to be up for when you got back... but uh, now I've seen you I'm glad—"

"Mate," Jamie cut him off, another warning tone to her voice, and while Dani had found Mikeys not so subtle attempts at flattery and flirting amusing, she was happy when Jamie had stopped him from going any further, after all, there was only one person in that room she was interested in flattery from. 

That thought alone caught her off guard as she thought back to how Jamie had first looked at her in the airport, the smirk she had worn when saying Dani being the exchange student was a pleasant surprise, how her heart rate had increased when Jamie had looked at her like _that_ , all those things made her stomach twist slightly and made a lump rise in her throat.

For years, Dani had found herself questioning things about herself.

For years she had been able to convince herself that she liked men and men alone. 

She simply admired other women, admired their soft features, the delicate angular curve of their jaws, the cupids bow of their lips, and the sounds of their lilting voices, it all came down to admiration, she had been able to convince herself that much for eighteen years. It was no different now she was standing next to Jamie, she simply admired the other woman's looks, and there was no harm in that. It was also no surprise that she liked the flattery from her. She tried her hardest to shake all the thoughts from her head, she knew she shouldn't be thinking this way in general. 

But she definitely shouldn't be feeling this way about a woman she had only just met. 

But there was something about Jamie, something she felt drawn to. 

A feeling she simply couldn't explain, she had never experienced it before upon first meeting someone. 

"Whatever," Mikey chuckled, shaking his head at his sister, "I’ll let you two get on with your day anyway… again, it’s nice to meet you,” He said before walking past the two women and heading upstairs. 

“So that’s Mikey,” She shook her head slowly as she watched him walk away, “Sorry about him, but, uh, I did tell you that he’d be really excited over you… I can’t say I blame him,” She smirked again, and Dani was sure that the way Jamie looked at her, paired together with that smirk was going to be the death of her, as was the subtle flirting she kept hitting her with that morning. Dani wanted desperately to hear more about how Jamie couldn’t blame her brother for being excited over her, she wanted so desperately to know what she had meant by that, desperately wanted to elaborate just a little more on that small statement, she knew what she wanted it to mean, even if she couldn't admit it to herself. "So, do I get to call you Dani, or is that something only Mikey can do?" 

The blonde woman shook her head slowly, “Uh, no, you can call me it too if you want to,” She shrugged, “I mean, you can call me anything you want,” She’d said it a little too quickly for her own liking, and she instantly regretted it as Jamie’s smirk grew and her heart rate increased tenfold.

“Good to know,” The brunette replied, her smirk transforming one again into a smile, her green eyes lingering on Dani’s face before she spoke again, “I uh, should probably give you a bit of a tour and then let you get settled.”

“Oh, yeah, thank you,” Dani replied with a smile as she followed Jamie out of the living room, and into the short, narrow hallway.

The tour of the small house was brief, with Jamie showing her the kitchen which also served as a dining room, as it was large enough to fit a table and chairs in it too (Jamie explained that should she smoke, it was to be done in the kitchen or in the back yard), before heading up the stairs of the house.

“So, this is your room,” She sighed as she pushed open one of five doors upstairs, “I’m sorry that it’s only small, uh, the people who lived here before my mum and dad moved in converted one decent sized bedroom into two small ones.”

Dani looked around the small room, taking in the queen-sized bed, wardrobe, and desk, there was only just enough space left for her to walk around the room, and while it was roughly a quarter of the size of her old room, she was just thankful that she had been able to take part in this program.

“No, Jamie, this is great, really,” She replied with a small smile, dropping her hand luggage and purse onto the floor.

Jamie furrowed her eyebrows at the blonde and shook her head slowly, “I mean, it’s not great, but I’ll take your word for it,” She chuckled, “Oh and the door opposite yours, on the other side of the landing is the bathroom, we only have the one of those,” She sighed, she stepped out of the room and motioned for Dani to follow her lead, the blonde stepped out of the room and stood on the landing with Jamie, “That door there, is Mikey’s room,” She explained, pointing to the door on the right of Dani’s bedroom, “He games a lot… like, _a lot_ , and he can get kind of loud, so if he keeps you up at night just let me know… and my bedroom is the door on the other side of your room,” She gestured to the door on the left of Dani’s bedroom, “So if you need anything, you know where I am.”

“Are you not gonna warn me about you keeping me up all night?” Dani teased.

Jamie shook her head slowly, another smirked spreading across her face, “I’d only keep you awake all night if you want me to,” She fired back, her gaze intense as her green eyes locked with Dani’s blue. 

Dani'ss heart began to beat rapidly in her chest, and while she knew that she had left Jamie wide open to make the comment, she couldn’t believe how bold and brazen the other woman had been with her, especially since they had only just met.

But the thing that surprised her the most, was how much she enjoyed the flirting. 


	3. Two

**Two**

_At first, she and her friends had thought it was funny, in fact, she’d go as far as saying someone of them had found it hilarious. But her own enjoyment soon died down when she found herself sitting in the headmaster’s office that Monday morning, with three people she vaguely knew from her year twelve class._

_As she looked at the other three students, two boys and one girl, she realised that she stood out among them. The three students sitting next to her were some of the brightest in her class, and all three of them were on track to get top grades in their AS and A Levels, just as they had received some of the highest grades in their GCSE exams last year._

_Sitting next to her were Ellie Jones, a girl she really couldn’t get along with at all, no matter how many times they were forced to work together throughout their school life, Lee Jackson, a boy who had made her life a misery for as long as she could remember all because of her social class, and finally, Richard ‘Ricky’ Smith, a boy she counted as a friend, though they never spoke to each other outside of their shared lessons._

One of these things is not like the others, _She mused._

_Either, they had done the unexpected and had caused trouble at school for the first time in their lives, or Jamie was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they had made a mistake._

_She was no stranger to being in Mr. Wingrave’s office, though she was usually well aware of the reason she had been called there or had been marched there by another teacher after she had been caught doing something she shouldn’t have been._

_“I suppose you’re wondering why the four of you are here?” Mr. Wingrave asked looking between the four teenagers standing in front of him, “Though some of you are more accustomed to being here than others,” He gave Jamie a knowing look._

_“Look, whatever you think I did… I probably didn’t do because I really don’t know why I’d be stood here with this lot,” Jamie admitted pointing to the other three students in the office with her that morning._

_Mr Wingrave shook his head slowly, “You haven’t done anything wrong,” He assured her, “As the four of you are aware, Horsforth Trinity and All Saints have put themselves forwards to take part in a foreign exchange program this year, as we feel this school could benefit from some diversity and new cultures, because of that four of our students have been selected to spend their final year of Sixth form studying abroad and the four of you, along with your families, have been selected to be hosts for four exchange students, each one from a different country to the others.”_

_Jamie felt her heart sink._

_She had never expected that she would be in this position, had never thought that she would actually have to be a host for anyone._

_She should know better than to take on stupid bets with Peter, but she was highly competitive, and she had been so sure she was going to win, or at worst, she would lose, but her teachers would never allow someone with her behavioural patterns to actually be one of the host families._

_She knew, that if she were a teacher, she would never let someone who had been in as much trouble as she had, take on a student from another school._

_“Oh my God, that’s amazing,” Ellie’s voice pulled her from her thoughts, and she couldn’t help but make a disgusted sound at the back of her throat._

_She knew somewhere deep down the dislike she had for the other girl was unreasonable, Ellie had, in reality, never done anything wrong to Jamie, it just so happened that all through high school they had been forced to work together for group projects, and even now in their P.E classes, if they were playing team games, Ellie would surely be forced to join Jamie’s team as they always seemed to be a man down, while the other team always seemed to have one extra member._

_She turned her head to face the mousey haired girl, whose eyes seemed ten times brighter than she had ever seen them before in her life. It was clear to see from her face that she was all too happy about being selected to be a hostess._

_Mr. Wingrave nodded his head slowly, “We like to think so, Ellie, yes,” He replied, “We will have more information on the students soon, but right now all we can tell you is that as of September we will have four new students in out halls: two young men, one from Germany and the other from Spain and two young women, one from America and the other from Lithuania… we expe—”_

_“Can I have dibs on the Yank?” Jamie asked, her hand raised drawing attention to herself, Mr. Wingrave heaved a heavy sigh before turning his attention to her, “I don’t speak any of those other languages, I mean, I stopped doing foreign language in year nine.”_

_Mr. Wingrave shook his head slowly, "Perhaps, it would be best if we avoided language like that from now on, don’t you think, Jamie?” He asked, his voice and eyes steely as he looked at the dark-haired woman._

_“Yeah, sorry.”_

_“Sorry what?”_

_“Yeah, sorry, sir,” She mumbled, nodding her head slowly._

_“That’s better,” He gave her a tight-lipped smile, “You now need to go home and inform your parents about what is happening and let them know you have been selected as our four students, while it is not mandatory, while the exchange students are here, it would be nice of you to have something of a buddy system to help them out when it comes to their schooling. After all, in September, you will be year thirteens, and there will be more expected of you… I trust none of you will let us down?”_

_Ellie, Ricky, and Lee each nodded their heads, beaming smiles on their faces, “We won’t let you down at all,” Ricky replied._

_Lee nodded his head in agreement, “Yeah, you couldn’t have picked three, oops, sorry… four better people,” He said snidely, turning his head to face Jamie as if she had been an afterthought in the whole thing._

_She was sure, had they not been standing in Mr. Wingrave’s office, she would have knocked that smug smile off his face, it wouldn’t be the first time she’d hit or punched him._

_Mr. Wingrave gave the boy a tight-lipped smile, nodding his head slowly, Jamie hated that the older man appeared to be ignoring the snide remark, then again, she knew she shouldn’t be surprised._

_It wouldn’t be the first time a teacher at that school had ignored the treatment the Taylor children seemed to be subject to._

_“We’re very confident that the four of you are the right choices for this experience,” He cleared his throat, “But for now, you can all go and enjoy your break, we’ll update you when we have more information about who you’ll be paired with.”_

_As the four students headed to the door, Ellie, Ricky, and Lee all talked amongst themselves, while all Jamie could do was curse herself for making that stupid bet with Peter, and actually writing her name down on the sign-up sheet._

_“Oh, Miss Taylor?” Mr. Wingrave called as she reached the door, “A word please?” She sighed quietly before turning around and walking back over to his desk, dropping herself into one of the chairs just in front of it, giving him a questioning look, “We would like this experience to run as smoothly as possible,” He said, “With your… colourful school record, we expect even more from you than anyone else. I meant what I said about the buddy system. The four of you will be setting an example for this school... it would be nice if your student had a good student to model themselves on... do you understand?"_

_Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, I get that,” She replied, “And you know me, I am the epitome of a good example,” She joked, “Which is why I think you should pick someone else in my place, there are a lot of people that really want this that would be better options… someone like Rebecca Jessel, maybe?”_

_“Rebecca didn’t even put her name on the sign-up sheet.”_

_“Yeah, but she wanted to,” Jamie admitted, hoping he would pick one of her friends over her, “She missed the deadline though, and you know what she’s like, I think she was too nervous to do it but—”_

_“Jamie,” Mr. Wingrave cut her off, “While I appreciate you trying to give someone else a chance, we think this could be good for you… it’s the opportunity to really excel and to prove yourself… you’re a bright girl when you want to be… we would like to think we can trust you with this… can we?”_

_Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah,” She replied, though she wasn’t entirely sure of her answer, “You can… but I was serious about the American thing early,” She added with a small smile, “Thought I could try and nab that one before someone else did. Y’know?”_

_“Once again, Jamie, you will be given, whoever you are given, this experience isn’t about who you want to live with for a year. It’s about opening yourself up to new things and knew people of different cultures.”_

_“Yeah, I know.”_

_“Alright, well, I’ll let you get back to your break now,” He smiled at her, she reached the door and tugged it open, “Oh and Jamie?” He captured her attention once more, Jamie sighed and turned around to face him, giving the older man a questioning look, “Straighten up your tie and fasten those top two buttons on your shirt. We expect you to look smart, not like you have been dragged through a hedge backward.”_

_She rolled her eyes before following his instructions and motioning to her uniform, “That better for you?”_

_“Much,” He replied, looking directly ahead at the computer screen in front of him, “Please close the door on your way out.”_

_Jamie headed back to the courtyard, finding her friends at their usual table at the other end of the outside seating area, she walked over to them and dropped down onto the bench, sitting in the spot next to Hannah._

_“You’re back then?” Owen asked, “We thought you’d be gone all break… you can’t be in too much trouble if you were actually allowed out of the office, was it as bad as you thought?”_

_“Well, for once in my life I wasn’t in the office because I was in trouble… if anything, it was the opposite of that,” She explained, “Uh, I’m one of the host families for the foreign exchange kids,” She replied flatly._

_“Oh well that’s just brilliant,” Peter laughed, “Honestly, this could not have worked out any better, not only did I win the bet, but now you have to actually be one of the hosts too, that’s just sheer genius… I can’t wait to see what you get lumped with.”_

_“What I don’t get is how_ you _managed to get picked,” Hannah commented, “I mean no offense when I say that, but you have to admit, you’re not exactly a model student.”_

 _Jamie nodded her head in agreement, “Trust me, there’s no offense taken when you say that, I know I’m not a model student,” She replied, “But_ _when he was talking to me Mr. Wingrave made it sound like they’d picked me on purpose… He kept saying it was a chance for me to really excel and prove myself,” She sighed, and tipped her head backward, groaning quietly, “I’m fucked.”_

_Owen nodded his head slowly, “I mean, maybe a little,” He shrugged giving her a small smile, “But you never know, this could actually be a really good experience for you,” He offered, trying his hardest to cheer Jamie up, “Every cloud has a silver lining and all that.”_

_“I don’t think there is a silver lining,” She replied incredulously, “In a matter of months a stranger from a different country is going to be living in my house for a year an—” She stopped herself from talking and closed her eyes before groaning quietly._

_“What?” Hannah asked, “What’s wrong?”_

_“I put my name down for this thing, thinking nothing would come of it, and now… I’ve got to go home and tell my dad that some random kid is going to be living with us for a year.”_

_Her heart sank even further at the thought of breaking the news to her dad, a man, who she knew would be less than pleased to have a stranger in their home even for an hour, let alone a year. Just like that, her day went from bad to worse._

* * *

Jamie couldn’t believe her luck.

She had never thought the day would come where she counted herself lucky, but when she had seen Dani that morning in the airport, she couldn’t help but wonder if things were changing and if after almost eighteen years, things were finally looking up for her.

For the next year, she would be sharing her home with an _entirely too pretty_ American woman, and all because she had bet Peter that there was no possible way Richard Gere’s middle name was Tiffany.

It had been a bet she had never seen herself losing.

At the time, she had been furious with herself for falling to the Scottish man’s trap, she should have known better than to make a bet with him, after all, it wasn’t very often Peter lost anything. But she had been so sure of herself, she had been so sure that there was no possible way she could lose that bet. Her heart had sunk when Peter had pulled up the evidence that he was right, for multiple reasons.

One, she hated being wrong, two, she was a highly competitive person, and everyone knew that, three, she was even more competitive when it came to Peter, and four, she couldn’t believe that she'd had to sign up to be one of the hosts for the foreign exchange students.

She had never wanted to take part in the program, she’d thought it was pointless and a waste of everyone’s time. She had no idea why anyone would ever want to study in Horsforth if they had a choice. She was sure, that if anyone found out they had to go to a small suburban British town, they would soon back out of the program.

Not to mention the fact that she couldn’t think of anything worse than having to share her home with a stranger, especially not for a year.

But now she was all too happy that she had lost that bet.

Dani hadn’t been anything like what she was expecting, in fact, she hadn’t known what to expect when she got to the airport that day, but it definitely hadn’t been a stunning blonde woman with a pretty smile and bright eyes.

The prettiest eyes Jamie is sure she has ever seen.

She dropped herself down onto her bed, thinking about the woman in the room next to her, and she wondered if maybe she had come on too strong with the flirtatious comments that she’d made. She’d always been a confident person, had never had any issues with that. She just hoped that Dani also had no issues with how she had acted. 

Her phone buzzing in her pocket pulled her thoughts away from the American, she sighed and pulled her phone, rolling her eyes when she saw that Peter had sent a message to the group chat they had with Rebecca, Hannah, and Owen. 

**Peter Quint: So, have you picked up the Yank yet?**

She knew it probably wasn’t normal to feel such annoyance over a simple message from another person. But she couldn’t help it, over the few years she had known him, Peter had given her more than enough reasons to dislike him. He was cunning, a control freak, and above all else, a first-class narcissist. He did, however, have one redeeming quality, and that was that he had, on occasion, been known to be funny.

In fact, if it wasn’t for Rebecca Jessel, Jamie’s best friend since birth, she would have stopped talking to Peter a long time ago. But if she stopped talking to Peter, she would have to stop talking to Rebecca too, they had become something of a package deal.

Ever since they started semi-dating in year eleven of high school when Peter had moved from Scotland to England.

Jamie couldn’t understand how Rebecca was still falling for his same old tricks years later, he would treat her terrible for weeks on end, then suddenly, he would give her overwhelming amounts of love and compliments, only to rip it out from under her again within a matter of days, and go back to treating her terribly, making her feel bad for things she hadn’t even done.

Jamie hated him for it, she knew that both Owen and Hannah hated him for it too, but the thing with Rebecca was that she liked to see the good in everyone, always clinging to the nice things he did for her, the nice things he would say to her.

Rebecca was a firm believer that everyone deserved a second chance, or in Peter Quint’s case, a third, fourth, fifth, and even sixth chance.

Jamie, however, did not share that sentiment.

**Peter Quint: You have, haven’t you?**

**Peter Quint: Is she fit?**

**Peter Quint: She a dog?**

**Peter Quint: She’s a dog, int she?**

**Peter Quint: Just answer us!!**

Jamie rolled her eyes at his incessant messages, she unlocked her phone and opened up the group chat, deciding to reply to him in as little detail as she could, ignoring all of his questions about Dani’s looks.

It never failed to amaze her that he could be so interested in someone else’s looks knowing Rebecca was in the same group chat with them, then again, he’d never even been shy talking about other girls while Rebecca was sat right next to him.

She quickly typed out a reply before throwing her phone onto her bed.

**Jamie Taylor: Yes, we just got back.**

Her phone buzzed again, she glanced at it as it buzzed again, and again, and again. She knew she was in a long day of inane questions from Peter and she wasn’t sure she had the energy to deal with it.

At least not at that time, not at 10:30 am.

She sighed before picking up her phone again.

**Peter Quint: You didn’t answer my other question.**

**Peter Quint: She’s either a dog or proper fit. No in-between.**

**Peter Quint: The sooner you tell me the sooner I shut up**

**Jamie Taylor: Don’t you have anything better to do with your morning?**

**Peter Quint: Nope. Not while Becks is asleep anyway.**

**Peter Quint: So, tell me… is she fit?**

Jamie thought about how best to answer his question, while she didn’t want to lie, and tell him no, Dani wasn’t fit, she also didn’t want to be honest and tell him that when it came to this woman words like _fit_ and _hot_ didn’t cover it.

That she had never seen anyone quite like her before.

But she knew Peter would use that to his advantage, would use it against her and bring it up at a moment's notice.

So instead, she typed out a reply that she hoped would suffice.

**Jamie Taylor: Yeah. She’s alright.**

She locked her phone and placed it on her bedside table, before laying down on her bed, closing her eyes, and allowed herself to fall back to sleep after the early morning she’d had.

She listened to her phone buzzing along the table, blowing up with replies from Peter after she had just told him the lie of the century, Dani Clayton was definitely more than just alright.

She was drop-dead gorgeous, and Jamie knew that.

* * *

She woke up to the sound of knocking on her door and rubbed the sleep from her eyes with balled fists, she grabbed her phone, seeing that she had around 50 notifications from the group chat, that she was definitely going to ignore, had two missed calls from her Dad and two texts, and saw that she had been napping for around three hours.

She pushed herself up from her bed with a tired groan and pulled open her door, her eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at the small brunette boy, “What do you want?” Jamie asked.

“Uh, some dinner would be nice,” Mikey replied, “That and Dad’s almost done where he is… he’s really annoyed with you,” He explained, “One, for the truck being in the state it was in, and two for ignoring his calls.”

“I wasn’t ignoring him, I was sleeping… and what do you mean the state the truck was in?”

“Apparently your truck had a lot wrong with it, like, a lot… I think you fucked it up a bit… what were you doing with it?”

“Nothing, it’s just old, and watch your language.”

“Dad’s not back yet, he can’t hear me.”

“That’s not the point,” Jamie replied pointing at the door to Dani’s room, “She might not like it.”

"Oh shit, yeah, forgot about that," He shrugged, "Oh well, I've said it now, if she doesn't like it, it's too late." 

"Again, with the language," She sighed heavily, usually she wouldn't care, especially not when their Dad wasn't around, usually she'd let him say anything he wanted if she was looking after him, but she felt the undeniable need to make a good impression on Dani, just like she felt the need to make a good first impression with any attractive woman, and this specific woman was more than just _attractive_.

She sighed and stepped out of her bedroom, closing the door behind her before knocking on the door to Dani’s room, “Uh, come in,” The blonde called, Jamie pushed the door open to see Dani sitting on her bed, tapping away on her phone. 

“Uh, I’m gonna make some dinner for me and Mikey, do you want anything?”

Dani furrowed her eyebrows and checked the time on her phone, “Dinner, this early?” she asked noting that it was only 1:30 pm.

Jamie rolled her eyes slightly and smiled, “Lunch… I’m gonna make some lunch, do you want some?”

Dani nodded her head, “Uh, yeah, sure,” She smiled pushing herself up from her bed and leaving the room, falling into step beside Jamie, “So, you call lunch dinner?” Dani asked, and the brunette nodded her head slowly, “So what do you call dinner?”

“Dinner would be called tea.”

“You mean like the drink?”

“Well, that’s a cup of tea,” Jamie smiled, “But yeah, I guess,” She shrugged, “Dinner and tea is more Northern speak really,” She explained, “If you went down South, you’d probably hear more people saying breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

“Oh, I see, so it’s just people in the North of England that can’t talk properly?” She teased with a small smile

“Really?” Jamie asked, “You really want to get into the debate of who can and can’t talk properly?” She shook her head slowly, “That is a battle you’ll lose, maybe back in the states you’d stand a chance, but not here.”

“I guess I should pick my battles better, huh?”

Jamie nodded her head, “Yeah, that’d be wise.”

Mikey was already waiting for them, sitting at the kitchen table and playing on his phone, he didn’t even look up from the device in his hand as his sister walked past him, he only put the phone down when Dani sat down opposite him at the table.

Jamie headed towards the fridge before looking over her shoulder, “What are you wanting?”

“A cheese toastie,” He replied, his eyes firmly on the blonde who seemed preoccupied with her own phone.

“Dani?” Jamie asked, “Is that alright with you, too?”

The blonde looked up from her phone, and gave Jamie a questioning look, “I’m sorry what?”

The dark-haired woman smiled, “I asked if a cheese toastie is alright for you for lunch an—”

“Lunch!” Mikey cut her off, screwing his face up slightly, “Since when have you said lunch?”

Dani smiled, “Since I taught her that’s what it’s actually called,” She replied.

Jamie shook her head slowly, “Don’t get used to it, because I’ll be calling it dinner again soon enough, this is just some Northern hospitality, once you’ve been here a while you’ll have to adapt to our way of speaking.”

“Not gonna happen,” Dani shook her head, “Now about this cheese toastie, I am going to assume that's the same as a grilled cheese?" 

Jamie nodded her head slowly, "Yeah, basically," She smiled slightly, "Do you want one? If not I can make something else for you?" 

Dani smiled, "Yes please, a 'cheese toastie' would be great," Dani replied using air quotations. 

Jamie set to work on making the cheese toasties, as Dani once again became occupied by her phone, “So where in America are you from?” Mikey asked, Dani, looked up from her phone at the sound of the younger boy’s voice, “Last year at school we started to learn a little bit about America and the states… which one are you from?”

“Minnesota,” Dani replied with a small smile, locking her phone and placing it on the table, with the screen facing downwards, the young boy furrowed his eyebrows slightly, as if he was deep in thought, “Is that not the answer you wanted?”

“I’m trying to remember stuff about Minnesota,” He admitted, “I was trying to impress you,” His voice growing quiet as he said the last part.

Jamie smiled slightly, as she watched Mikey trying to wrack his brain for any titbits of information he could find, “Oh well, that’s okay,” Dani shrugged, “You don’t need to try and impress me,” She assured him.

Jamie watched as the young boy nodded his head slowly, and decided to help him out, she’d admit it was cute seeing her brother try to impress a pretty girl, even if said pretty girl was far too old for him and would never see him as a viable option.

“Mikey, do you remember what you told me about Minnesota a couple of weeks ago?” She asked, “Uh, what was it, about its nickname… you remember, right?”

He nodded his head slowly, “Uh, yeah, it has a few, erm… The North Star State, The Gopher State, and The Land of 10,000 Lakes,” He looked to Dani for both approval and confirmation.

Dani smiled and nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, that’s right, and I am impressed,” She smiled at him, “Do you know a lot about America?”

Mikey shrugged, “I know enough to impress English people, but not Americans,” He admitted sheepishly.

“Well, maybe I can teach you something about America and Minnesota sometime?” 

Mikey nodded his head and smiled, "Yeah, I'd really like that," He admitted, his smile growing even wider when Jamie put a plate in front of him and Dani, Mikey wasted no time at all before he began to eat his grilled cheese sandwich. 

Dani gave Jamie a small smile and a quiet thank you before she watched the dark-haired woman head back to the stove to make the third and final grilled cheese, she glanced at Dani, to see that the blonde still wasn't eating, "You don't have to wait for me, y'know," Jamie informed her, "You can start I'm not gonna think anything bad about you if you eat without me being sat there... I'd rather you eat it while it's still warm." 

As Dani took her first bite of food, the front door slammed shut slightly, followed by heavy footsteps towards the door before a tall, dark-haired, broad-shouldered man walked into the kitchen. “Bloody hell, that was task and half,” The older man complained.

“You got it sorted then?” Jamie asked with a small smile.

He threw the keys to her a nodded his head, “Eventually,” He replied, “Don’t let it get this bad again,” The older man informed her, “I can’t keep paying for this stuff forever…next time you hear a funny noise coming from it, take to a garage, don’t just turn the music up,”

“Turning the music up does get rid of the noise though,” She pointed out, as she took the freshly made grilled cheese from the pan and cut it in two. 

“You know what else gets rid of the noise? Scrapping the car if you keep on like this,” He sighed before turning his attention to the blonde woman sitting at the table, he gave Jamie a questioning look.

She knew her father well enough to know what he was asking, he didn’t need to say it anymore, he’d come home one too many times to find women in the house with Jamie, it had become a common thing, and her dad hated it.

She shook her head slowly, “Oh, no,” She replied, “Dad, this is Danielle Clayton, the foreign exchange student,” She introduced them with a small smile, “Dani, this is my dad, Dennis," She moved to the other side of the table, taking the seat in between Dani and Mikey as she took a bite out of her lunch. 

“Hi, it’s really great to meet you, Mr. Taylor,” Dani held her hand out to the older man, “Thank you for opening your home to me.”

“It’s nice to meet you too, but you can just call me Dennis, or Den,” He replied, taking her hand and shaking it, “And you’re very welcome… I couldn’t exactly say no when this one came home and told me all about it,” He nodded to Jamie, “Just trying saying no to that face.”

She knew her dad was just trying to be nice to the blonde, he had been anything but pleased with her when she’d told him about the foreign exchange program and how they were going to be a host family.

Much like she was, her dad was a private man. He liked to keep to himself and preferred his children to do the same, there was already enough talk about them as a family within their little town, having a stranger in his home was the last thing he had wanted.

Dani smiled and nodded her head slowly, “I can imagine it’s not easy,” She replied with a small chuckle, and looking to Jamie. There was something about the way Dani looked at her, something that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, but it was something that she liked.

“Well, let’s hope you never have to find out,” Dennis replied with a small smile, pulling Dani’s attention away from Jamie, he sighed, as he dropped into the seat next to Mikey, “So, are you looking forward to school starting up?” Dennis asked, his attention mainly on Dani, Jamie appreciated, that however unimpressed he was to have the blonde in his home, he was trying his hardest to make her feel welcomed.

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Oh, for sure,” She replied, “It’ll be interesting to see how different the English schooling system is compared to the American one.”

Jamie shook her head slowly, “Well, with the school you’ll be going to, I think you’ll be highly disappointed with the schooling system,” She informed her before taking another bite of food.

“It can’t be that bad,” Dani replied looking at the dark-haired woman.

Jamie scoffed and shook her head slowly, “It can be, and it is,” She sighed, “You’ll find out next week, “I for one can’t wait to go back, but only because it’s the last year I’ll ever have to be there, thank god,” Jamie rolled her eyes.

Dennis turned his attention to his youngest child, “What about you, Mikey, are you looking forward to starting high school?”

Mikey scoffed and shook his head, screwing his face up slightly, “No, am I fuck,” He replied, his tone a little harsher than how Dani had heard it that morning, the blonde widened her eyes slightly, trying her hardest not to laugh at the young boy.

“Mikey, I’ve told you, watch your fucking language,” Jamie warned him.

“And you watch yours,” Dennis pointed at the brunette, “I’ve told you both; I don’t like it when you use language like that,” He glanced at Dani, “Especially not in front of a lady,” He nodded his head in the direction of the blonde.

“Uh, I’m a lady, too,” Jamie pointed to herself, her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

Dennis barked a laugh, before shaking his head, “You don’t know the meaning of the word,” He joked.

* * *

It had been a long day, filled with the obligatory small talk, as the four of them tried to adjust to their first day of living together. Jamie had done all she could throughout the day to make sure Dani had everything she wanted or could possibly need. It had been hard for her, at first, to step into the role of the hostess, most other times she'd had to do it she had quickly ushered a woman upstairs, slept with them, and ushered them out again, making all of her hostess experience brief. 

They had spoken to Dani a little more about her home life, with Mikey hanging on her every word about America and Minnesota, while Dani had asked questions about England.

After dinner, Mikey retreated to his room for the night, and Dennis made his way into the living room, leaving Jamie to wash the dishes after the older man had cooked for everyone.

As she pulled the plug from the sink and dried her hands on the dishtowel, she looked over her shoulder to see Dani tapping away at her phone, her eyebrows furrowed slightly, “You’ve been on that phone a lot today,” She commented, “So you’re either really antisocial, I’m shit company, or you were really popular back home,” She gave Dani a small smile.

“I’m not antisocial, or at least I don’t think I am,” Dani replied returning the small smile, “And you are definitely not shit company… and as much as I would like to think I’m really popular, it’s mainly my mom texting me, and people asking how I’m liking England… honestly they’re all more interested in where I am than they are in me.”

“Have you told them how shit it is here?” She asked, moving to the table and sitting down opposite the blonde.

“I haven’t really told them anything,” Dani sighed, “There isn’t much to tell them yet… I’ve not even been here a full day… I unpacked my stuff, had some food, met you guys… I've told them about some of what I did today." 

“I see, have you told them about the really hot girl you’re gonna be living with for the next year?” Jamie asked, a small smirk spreading across her face. She didn’t miss the way that Dani’s eyes traveled down what little of her body she could see, stopping when they hit the table before they reached her face again, and Jamie would be first to admit that she liked it when Dani looked at her like that, “With the look you just gave me, I’d say you’re contemplating it,” Jamie chuckled.

“No, not contemplating anything,” Dani replied, smile still firmly in place, “I was just thinking about how highly you clearly think of yourself,” She shrugged her shoulders, “Not that I blame you,” She sighed, Jamie quirked her eyebrow giving her a questioning look, “Don’t get ahead of yourself already,” Dani warned her jokingly, “I just mean that you’ve been a great hostess… and you seem like a good sister too if nothing else.”

“I seem like a good sister?”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, it was really cute of you to help Mikey… not quite as cute as him wanting to impress me in the first place… but it was still cute,” Dani shrugged.

“Well, y’know sometimes, you’ve just gotta be your eleven-year-old brother’s wingman,” Jamie joked.

“Oh, that’s what that was?” Dani asked, “You just being a wingman?”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, obviously,” She replied smirking slightly, “That… or I knew you’d find it cute if I helped him, and maybe I wanted to impress you a little bit.”

“So, which is it?” Dani asked, her eyes locking with Jamie’s for a split second.

“Guess you’ll have to wait and see, won’t you?” She replied with a wink, and she couldn’t help but smile when she saw a slight blush creep into Dani’s face, turning her cheeks a light shade of pink, all the blonde could do, was nod her head in return.

After a beat of silence, Jamie spoke again, “I’m gonna go out for a cig… do you wanna join me?”

Dani shook her head slowly, “No, I think… I think I’m just gonna head to bed, I’m totally exhausted,” She admitted with a small smile, “Good night.”

Jamie smiled in return, “Okay,” She replied, “Good night, Dani.”

The blonde gave her another tight-lipped smile before leaving the kitchen and heading up the stairs, and Jamie made a mental note to try and get Dani to blush around her again, after all, it just might be the cutest thing she’d ever seen.

* * *

As soon as she was in the confines of her new room, she released a breath of air that she hadn’t even realised she had been holding in, she rested her head on the door as Jamie words ran around her mind.

_Guess you’ll have to wait and see, won’t you?_

Those words spoken to her in that flirty tone, followed by a wink that had sent her heart rate skyrocketing, everything about it made her feel flushed.

 _It’s just admiration, Dani_.

She reminded herself, that’s all it was, that’s all she ever felt for other women. Pretty women, like Jamie, she simply admired them, wanted to be like them. A woman as pretty and as confident as Jamie was definitely someone to be admired.

She had never met anyone as overt with flirting as Jamie, they had only just met, and already she was so open about flirting with Dani, she could only imagine what Jamie was going to be like with her at the end of the year.

Of course, maybe the flirting would have stopped had Dani told her the truth about who had been texting her, maybe if she had been honest and had said that her boyfriend was making sure that she was okay, and settled and that her host family was nice, maybe then the flirting would stop.

But Dani hadn’t told Jamie about Edmund.

Dani hadn’t been honest about who had been texting her all day.

Because as much as it worried her.

As much as it made her stomach twist with anxiety, nausea, and excitement, she hadn’t wanted the flirting to stop.

Because as she had discovered earlier that day, she liked it all too much when Jamie Taylor flirted with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would just like to say a big thank you to Shananigans402 for helping me come up with an idea for a bet for Jamie and Peter, honestly, this was just too good not to use!! A huge thank you for that!!


	4. Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has interacted with this fic so far, I really appreciate all the comments, subscriptions, bookmarks, and kudos you have left!! I hope you enjoy this chapter and I hope that you have all had an amazing Holiday Season!!

**Three**

_“I’ve been thinking about putting my name down for it,” She informed him, “I mean, I am… I am signing up for it,” She sighed, “The second I heard about it, I just, felt like it was something I had to do… I’ve always wanted to travel, and I don’t know, this seems like as good a time as any to start right?”_

_Eddie nodded his head slowly, “Yeah, I guess,” He replied, “It could be fun for you… how long would you be gone for?”_

_“It’s a yearlong thing, you finish your senior year somewhere else, going through the schooling system the same way they would, taking part in any exam they do,” She explained, sighing slightly, “So, I’d be gone from like August to July at the very earliest, but it really depends on how the schooling system where they send you works.”_

_“A year?” Edmund asked, his voice raising an octave, “You want to take part in something that will separate us for a year?”_

_Dani had expected him to be slightly skeptical of it all when she told him. After all, since they first met, they hadn’t gone a single day without seeing each other, she knew he would have some apprehensions, she just hadn’t expected him to have such a similar response to her mother._

_Focusing far too much on how long she would be gone for._

_Dani nodded her head slowly, “Well, yeah, but when you say it like that it makes me sound like an ass,” She shrugged, “I just thought it could be something fun,” She shrugged, using a similar excuse to the one she had used on her mother._

_Hoping against all odds that one of them would be supportive of her._

_She knew if she didn’t have their full support, it would only make her decision to actually do this harder. She knew that no matter how they felt about it, she was still going to be taking part in the program._

_Dani had always known her own mind, and when she set her sights on something she didn’t stop until she had it, she had been the same in her friendship with Eddie and had done all she could to become his best friend, and then again, with their relationship._

_Daring him to kiss her, daring him to take their friendship further._

_Just like everyone expected them to._

_Like she knew they should_

_All her life, she had done what everyone else expected of her._

_Now it was time for her to do something she wanted to do, not because people thought she should, not because people expected it. Simply because she wanted to, and what she wanted, more than anything right now, was to take part in something that would put her thousands of miles away from that small Midwestern town._

_“You’re not doing this alone,” He replied quickly, shaking his head, “Do you know how dangerous it could be for you to do something like this alone? To just go to a different country and stay with people you’ve never met?”_

_She rolled her eyes dramatically, “Why does everyone keep saying this stuff to me?” She asked, “Do you know how dangerous life is in general?” She asked._

_Eddie scoffed, “At least you know people here, you know this town, you’re going to be in an entirely different country all alone,” He shook his head, “No, I am doing this with you. As you said, it could be fun.”_

_“Well, I only want you to do this if you’re absolutely sure,” Dani replied, “You’ll be leaving a lot behind you just for one person… it seems like a lot to miss out on… graduating with all your friends, being away from your family… are you sure I’m worth it?” She asked, hoping her words could convince him to stay._

_As much as she appreciated his efforts, and his need and want to be around her and to walk through every step of life with her. She knew that personally, she needed space, she needed time away from him and their relationship._

_“But it’s not just for any person,” Eddie shrugged, “I’d be doing it for you,” He sighed, “And I know we’re young and I know that you don’t like talking about any of this, but I know I want to spend my life with you… and anything I do in life I want to do it with you by my side… I don’t wanna graduate high school at the same time as everyone else if you won’t be there… and I don’t want to have to go twelve months without seeing you… that would just suck…so to answer you’re question, yeah, I think you’re more than worth it. I’d do anything for you, Dani.”_

_She nodded her head slowly, his words striking a myriad of feelings within in her, but the two that struck her the strongest were the guilt that she felt for trying to get him to stay behind, the guilt she felt for needing space from him when all he wanted to do was spend time with her, and of course, the fear she felt whenever Edmund spoke about the future._

_She knew where her future lie, and it was with Eddie, just like everyone expected from her, just like he wanted, and just like she knew she_ should _want. Eddie was safe, he was familiar, he was_ home _._

 _But the thing was Dani was becoming quite sick of home, she was becoming quite sick of safe and familiar, not that she would say that out loud, not that she_ could _say that out loud._

_She knew Eddie would never understand, just like her mother would never understand._

_“I know you would,” She replied, finally, “I just hope you know what doing this really means… I’ve had time to think about this, I just… I want you to do the same.”_

_“I don’t need to think about it,” He assured her, “Wherever you are is where I wanna be… so if that means leaving everyone behind for a year, then it means leaving everyone behind for a year.”_

_“And you’re not going to change your mind?” Dani asked._

_“No. I’m never gonna change my mind on you.”_

_That had been the last conversation they had about Eddie signing up to do the program with her, she had hoped that this was something she could do alone, something that would finally give her the sense of independence and freedom she longed for._

_She figured; she should have known better, especially with Eddie._

_She guessed she should have known that between her boyfriend and her mother, she would never truly have independence, they both expected so much from her. Both expected her to live life alongside them the same way they lived their life._

_But that wasn’t Dani._

_That wasn’t the life she wanted._

* * *

The sound of her phone buzzing across the small desk in her room pulled her from her sleep, she pushed herself up into a sitting position and looked around the room with narrowed eyes as the sun streaming in through the curtains burned them. 

She crawled to the end of her bed, picking up her phone, only to see Eddie’s name on her screen, she rolled her eyes before answering the call, “Hello?” She greeted him through a long yawn.

“ _Hey gorgeous, how was your first night?”_

Dani pulled the phone away from her ear and glanced at the time, 6:00 am, before she put the phone against her ear once more, “It still is the night,” she joked, “What are you doing up so early?”

“ _Time zones, my body is all mixed up,_ ” He explained, “ _I’ve been up for hours but didn’t want to disturb you too early._ ”

“So, you left it until 6:00 am?” Dani asked with a small smile.

“ _You’re still really tired, aren’t you?_ ”

Dani nodded her head despite the man not being able to see her, “A little,” She admitted, “I didn’t sleep during the journey here, but it’s fine,” She sighed, “And my first night was great, thanks, not much happened… I had dinner with my host family, and they seem great, uh, the son is super sweet and so cute, he’s—”

“ _Are you really gonna talk to me about some British guy you met yesterday?”_ He asked, his tone slightly annoyed, “ _I don’t need to hear this stuff especially not when you told me not to worry an—”_

“And he’s eleven,” Dani cut him off, continuing her list of things about Mikey, she couldn’t help but smile when she heard the string of unintelligible sounds leave his mouth, “I thought you said you were gonna trust me?”

“ _I did say that, and I do… but hearing your girlfriend talk about some guy first thing on a morning isn’t the nicest thing to hear.”_

“You did ask,” Dani sighed, “How was your night, what’s the family you’re staying with like?”

“ _It was okay, pretty lonely, I didn’t spend much time with them. They seem nice… and they seem just like any average family, a Mom, a Dad, and three kids… what’s your host family like?”_

“They all seem so nice, I’ve told you about Mikey, seriously, he is adorable, he was trying to impress with what he knows about Minnesota… uh, I didn’t talk to the dad much, he was out most of the morning, and then when he came home, we just had little bits of small talk, I guess and—”

“ _What about the girl at the airport, is she as terrible as she seemed?”_

“No, not at all,” Dani shook her head, “Jamie is actually kinda nice… again, I didn’t talk to her much because I spent the day unpacking and getting settle, but I don’t know she just seems nice… I think we’re gonna get along really well.”

Dani couldn't help but think about how her description of Jamie seemed to be an understatement. Though they didn't talk much yesterday, Jamie had been nothing but welcoming and had done all she could to make sure that Dani felt at home. She was sure they were going to get along just fine, maybe better than fine, especially if Jamie kept it up with the flirty comments, that was something that Dani could definitely get used to and could grow to really really, love. 

As she thought of the other woman, her heart began to beat a little faster, and her stomach began to knot up with anticipation, butterflies flapping their wings mercilessly. 

Once again, she had to remind herself that she simply admired Jamie and that the butterflies, twisting stomach, and rapid heartbeat meant nothing. 

“ _What about the mom?_ ” Eddie asked, his voice pulling Dani from her thoughts of Jamie, “ _Was she as nice?_ ”

“That’s the thing, I don’t think there is a mom… or if there is, she must be out of town for whatever reason because I haven’t met her yet.”

“ _No mom?_ ”

“I don’t think so, I guess I’ll have to let you know when I know a little more… but I think it’s just Dennis and his kids.”

“ _Dennis?_ ” Eddie asked, “ _You’ve been there a day and you’re already on a first-name basis with the man?”_

“Yeah, he told me to call him it, so I am,” Dani shrugged, “Have your family not extended the same treatment to you?”

“ _Not yet… but like I said I didn’t spend much time with them, at least not as much time as it seems you spent with your family… I barely remember their names at all… I think the kids are called, Laura, Kyle, and Beth._

“You think?” Dani asked with a small chuckle.

“ _I didn’t talk to them much.”_

“Well, there’s always today, right?” She asked, “I’m hoping I get to spend more time with Jamie and Mikey today, get to know them a little better… after all, we are living with these people for the next year.”

Eddie sighed, “ _I know, but… I’ve never been great at making friends and getting to know people, our friends aren’t really_ our _friends… they’ve always been_ your _friends, and because I was your boyfriend, they were mine by association.”_

Dani rolled her eyes, “Eddie, you’re gonna be just fine… you don’t need me to hold your hand while you’re doing this… it might be good for you to be on your own for something like this… give you the chance to make friends without me.”

“ _I guess, but maybe I don’t wanna make new friends without you._ ”

“Well, you’re going to have to at some point, what happens if we go to different colleges and you have to be without me for four years?”

“ _I was sort of hoping we’d both get into the University of Minnesota,_ ” He admitted, his words coming out in a quiet mumble.   
  
“Eddie, I always said I didn’t know if I was gonna apply there or not,” Dani sighed, “I only said that I’d apply to shut my mom up, I told you it’s not what I really want.”

“ _Why are you so opposed to staying in Minnesota, it’s like lately, all you care about is getting out… there’s a reason hardly anyone leaves that town… why do you suddenly want to be away from all of our friends, and our families... our home, Dani?"_

“This isn’t a sudden thing,” Dani admitted, “I like home don’t get me wrong, and it’s not a bad place it’s just… I’m growing tired of the same old routine, and I don’t think I can do it… at least, not until I’ve seen a little bit more of what life has to offer.”

“ _And then you’d go back?_ ” He asked, “ _You'll settle down there and have a family?”_ He asked.

“I don’t know,” Dani shrugged, “Maybe… but don’t you think we’re a little young to be thinking about all that… we’re not even eighteen yet, and I just thi—”

“ _No, not yet but we almost are… you’re eighteen in November, and now is the exact time to be thinking about this stuff… I feel like all of our friends are moving forward planning the next step in their relationships and we’re what… just taking it a step at a time?_ ”

“Well, if you’re so sure you wanna be with me you wouldn’t need to plan everything, it’s like you’re trying to trap me somehow… and I really don’t see an issue with just taking things a step at a time… it’s not gonna kill us to not have a time stamp on marriage and kids.”

“ _I can’t do this right now… I’ll call you later?_ ”

Dani sighed and nodded her head slowly, she hated when he did this, when he walked away from discussions, the same way her mother always did. Lately, she was starting to realise just how alike the two of them were.

If they didn’t like what she had to say, they’d simply walk away from her, and put an end to discussions, rather than trying to resolve the issue like adults, rather than trying to find some kind of compromise or an agreement, they would simply shut her down.

Usually, it was an indicator of her starting to pull ahead in the discussion.

Both her mother and boyfriend were stubborn, she knew that, but so was she, and she knew that the next time this discussion arose, her mind would not have been changed any, and the cycle would repeat itself; Eddie wanting verbally promises of where they were heading, and Dani explaining that she wanted to see more of the world, and more of life before tying herself down to anyone or anything.

“Sure, just call me whenever you can,” She replied.

“ _Bye… I love you_.”

“I love you too,” Dani sighed before hanging up the phone.

She didn’t know how many more times she could have that same argument with Edmund before she snapped, but she knew, that she was nearing her limit. She pushed herself out of bed and exited her room.

Sneaking down the stairs as quietly as she could, trying her hardest not to wake the three other habitants of the house, the last thing she needed was to make a bad impression on Jamie and her family the second day she was in their home.

She walked into the kitchen, her eyes widening slightly as she saw Jamie sitting at the table, her head in her hands, her eyes struggling to stay open, “Oh, I’m sorry,” Dani said as she closed the door with a quiet click, her heart rate increasing slightly at the sight of the other girl, “I didn’t expect to see you in here,” She admitted.

Jamie gave her a soft smile, and quirked her eyebrow, “Really? Because I’m pretty sure that this is my house,” She moved to sit up straighter, “I could have sworn you were the unexpected one.”

Dani rolled her eyes, “What I meant was that I expected everyone else to still be asleep.”

“Well, it was kind of hard to sleep when I could hear you talking to someone,” Jamie sighed as she stood up from her seat, “Whoever it was seemed to be annoying you a little bit,” She walked over to the kettle, flipping the switch to turn it on, “Was it your mum again?”

“Uh, yeah,” Dani nodded her head slowly, “She was just making sure I had a good first night in England,” She lied.

Dani didn’t know why she was lying, it would have been so easy to correct Jamie, to tell her the truth and say she had been talking to her boyfriend, but for some reason, a reason unbeknownst to herself, she couldn’t form the words.

“She was asking about us too, right?” Jamie asked, looking over her shoulder.

“What?”

“She was asking about me and my family, right?” She asked again, “I heard you say that you hadn’t met my mum yet, and that you weren’t really sure what the situation was there… but that you’d tell her when you found out.”

“You heard all that?” Dani asked sighing quietly, Jamie nodded her head slowly, before grabbing two cups from the cupboard, “Jamie, I am so sorry if I offended you… I really didn’t want to do that… but I can see now how it might have sounded… I honestly meant no disrespect by any of it,” The blonde rambled, her words coming out in one big rush.

“Whoa, calm down, Dani,” Jamie chuckled, turning to face the blonde and holding her hands up, “You didn’t offend me,” She shook her head slowly, “This was gonna come up sooner or later… but uh, no, I don’t have a mum… So while it was pretty nosey, I get it… she’s gonna be curious her daughter is halfway across the world with a bunch of strangers… I mean, my dad tried to squeeze as much information as he could out of me when I finally found out who’d be staying with us… unfortunately, all I could do was tell him your name and that you were from America.”

“That must have been really disappointing?”

Jamie shook her head slowly, “Nah, not really,” She admitted, “My dad just sort of accepted that we weren’t going to know a lot about you until you actually got here… but now he's gonna try and get all the information out of you… so uh, have fun dealing with all of his… and Mikey’s questions.”

Dani smiled, “I really don’t mind… like you said, being curious is only natural… you and your family have to adjust to having a total stranger in your home with you… I can’t imagine that's any easier than having your kid be in a house full of strangers.”

“Nah, maybe not,” Jamie shook her head, “I can’t imagine it’s easy to be in a house full of strangers either though… do you want any tea or coffee?” She asked pointing at the kettle.

“Uh, coffee please,” She sighed and shrugged her shoulders, “Honestly, I don’t think I fully realise what I’ve gotten myself into,” She admitted with a small smile, “But, the thought of living with people I don’t know doesn’t bother me too much, I’d be doing it next year at college anyway, right?”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Huh, I guess I never thought about it that way,” She admitted, her eyebrows furrowing slightly.

“I have tried getting a couple of people to see it that way, but they don’t seem to want to hear it.”

“A couple of people tried talking you out of this?” Jamie asked.

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, some of my friends weren’t totally on board with the idea of me leaving the country for a year, but I thought, it’s my life so what if other people don’t like it… did anyone try talking you out of it?”

Jamie shook her head slowly, “No,” She admitted, “I mean, my dad didn’t love the idea, but as he told you yesterday, you can’t say no to this face,” She pointed to herself and gave Dani a wide smile.

Dani couldn’t help but think of how hard it must be to try and say no to someone as attractive and admittedly charming as Jamie, her stomach seemed to clench tightly at her own thoughts, as she willed herself to think about Edmund instead.

He was attractive too; he could be charming when he wanted to be.

But for some reason, whenever she was around Jamie it was like he didn’t even exist anymore, and Dani couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty at the fact that he seemed absent from her mind whenever she spoke to the dark-haired woman.

“So, how do you take your coffee?” Jamie asked, her voice pulling Dani from her thoughts.

“Oh, milk and two sugars please,” She smiled.

Jamie finished making two drinks, before carrying them over to the table placing Dani’s coffee in front of her. She dropped down into the seat opposite the blonde woman, “So, how’d you sleep?” Jamie asked, taking a sip of her tea.

“I slept okay thanks, that bed was super comfy.”

“Good I’m glad,” Jamie smiled, “And yeah, it’s alright,” She nodded her head slowly, “So you were able to settle alright? I know a lot of people struggle to settle in new environments.”

“When you were awake for as long as I was, falling to sleep in a new place is not an issue at all… I was awake for… I don’t even know how many hours,” She admitted, “Had it not been for my phone ringing this morning I’d probably still be asleep now.”

“So that phone call woke you up?”

Dani nodded her head, “Yes.”

“Wait so what time would it be in Minnesota right now?”

“Uh,” Dani furrowed her eyebrows, “I think the UK is six hours ahead of Minnesota, so it’d be like, 12:30 am … so it’s not too late there,” She shrugged.

“Well, maybe when it’s midday here you can wake her up at stupid o’clock… or you could go one better and call her in like three hours.”

Dani smiled and shook her head slowly, “No, it wasn’t done maliciously,” She replied, “If I thought maybe it had been, I’d take you up on that offer,” She admitted, before sighing, “She just had trouble sleeping.”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “I know the feeling, I got woken up by a pretty loud girl this morning. It was like sleeping in a room next to a bugle-horn,” Jamie joked, “Is it too late to put you on a plane back to America?”

Dani chuckled and nodded her head, “Unfortunately you’re gonna have to get used to that,” She shrugged her shoulders, “Because it is way too late to send me back and you really are just stuck with me for the next year.”

Jamie shrugged her shoulders slightly, “I guess I can think of worse situations to be in,” She replied with a small smile of her own.

Once again, Dani felt her heart rate increase and a butterfly flap its wings gently in her stomach as she took in the sight of what she was sure was the prettiest smile she had ever seen. 


	5. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has left a comment and /or kudos on this fic so far and thank you to those of you who have subscribed and bookmarked this fic so far I really appreciate it!! And also a big Happy New Year to you all!! I hope 2021 has bigger and better things for all of us lets leave 2020 in our dust!! 
> 
> LITTLE BIT OF INFORMATION BEFORE STARTING THIS CHAPTER:  
> In this chapter I have mentioned that Dennis is a landscaper, the reason for this career change in this fic is simply due to the fact that most (if not all) coal mines closed down in the 80s due to Margret Thatcher wanting to get rid of them leaving us without any mines and leaving many men in the 80s without work!! 
> 
> Also, before I go any further with this fic, I would like to just say that there will be some cheating involved!! However, I definitely DO NOT condone cheating and never will, I just had an idea for a fic and really wanted to explore internalised homophobia and comphet!! If you are not a fan of cheating and don't want to read a fic about that I completely understand!! I do however hope anyone who does read this fic enjoys it!! That being said, here is chapter 5!! I hope you enjoy it :)

**Four**

_“YOU DID WHAT!” Jamie screwed her face up slightly, the sheer volume of her dad’s voice hurting her ears, she had known he’d be mad, but she hadn’t expected him to reach this level of rage, she couldn’t remember the last time she had seen him this angry._

_“I put my name down weeks ago, maybe even months… I never thought anything would actually come of it,” She admitted, “I never thought we’d actually have to be one of the host families… I just thought it’d be a bit of a laugh to put my name down,” She shrugged._

_“You didn’t think this would happen?” He asked, “You had to know that putting your name down would mean there was even a slim_ chance _of something like this could happen to you… I mean how stupid do you have to be to—”_

_“Dad, I know that you’re annoyed right now, and trust me, I’m not thrilled about this either… but if you’re gonna be mad at anyone it really should be Peter… he got me involved in a stupid bet and the bet was that whoever lost had to put their name down on the host list… so really, you should be having this conversation with him.” She shrugged, hoping to get herself out of this mess._

_Her dad shook his head slowly, “Jamie Louise Taylor, you fix this,” He pointed his finger at her, Jamie felt her stomach twist at the use of her full name, both in the sense that it showed how angry her dad was, and at the reminder of being named after her mother, “I don’t want someone I don’t know living in this house…_ you _got yourself into this mess and I am sure that you can get yourself back out of it again… no one made you make that bet with him.”_

_Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, I know,” She admitted, “And I did try and fix this, I really did… but they wouldn’t let be out of it,” She shook her head slowly, “I know that I shouldn’t have made that bet with him and that I should have known better… but he’s a sneaky little fucker and he gets you sucked into stuff… I’m really sorry I did this… but I think we just have to live with it.”_

_Dennis sighed and ran his hand over his short dark hair, “We are not the right family to be doing something like this,” He replied, his voice slightly softer than it had been before, “Not with the things people say about us,” He shook his head slowly, “I don’t want to involve anymore people in this… or have another person talking about us and telling everyone everything… you guys have a hard enough time as it is.”_

_“I know, Dad, and I am really sorry that I did it… Peter and I just thought it’d be funny if someone like me or him put our name down… I never thought they’d actually let me do it… I’m a little shit, and we all know I am,” She shrugged, “I never thought that they’d let me be someone who has to set an example for a new student…but the way Mr. Wingrave spoke to me about all this makes me think they picked me because I’m a little shit and they think this will make me behave.”_

_Dennis sighed, “And there’s really no getting out of this?”_

_Jamie shook her head slowly, “There is no way out,” She explained, “I did try and get him to replace me with someone like Rebecca, but he seemed dead set on having us be a host family… so I’m sorry again.”_

_“Jamie, I don’t want you to apologise,” He sighed as he dropped down into one of the seats at the small kitchen table, “I just want you to stop doing stupid things like this and to just put a little more thought into stuff before you do it… just for once I want you to stop being so impulsive.”_

_“Okay, I’ll stop,” Jamie nodded her head slowly, “And I promise, the next time I do something stupid, I’ll_ really _think about it first,” She joked, Dennis smiled despite himself and shook his head slowly._

_“It’s getting really hard to say no to you,” Dennis admitted, “It’s those eyes… you look just like your mother… and I could never stay mad at her either,” There was a beat of silence as the two of them looked at each other, the weight of his words hanging between them, Jamie had been told on more than one occasion that she looked like her mum, just another reminder of the woman who left them all behind. Her stomach twisted for the second time that day._

_“Is that a bad thing?” She asked, her voice cutting through the quiet._

_Dennis shook his head slowly, “No, it’s not,” He gave her a soft smile, before he spoke again, “So, do we know anything about the exchange student staying with us?”_

_Jamie shook her head slowly and sat down in the chair opposite her dad, “No, we don’t know anything yet,” She explained, “We know where the exchange students are from, but we don’t know who’ve we’ve got,” Jamie sighed, “There are two girls and two guys I know that much… and out of the kids from Horsforth there’s two boys and two girls so I guess they’ll pair us up as girl-girl and boy-boy.”_

_“Well, I’m not overly fond of either of those options,” Dennis admitted, Jamie quirked her eyebrow at her dad, “I hate the idea of some teenage boy being all over you… but I also hate the idea of you being all over some girl—”_

_“Okay, neither of those things are going to happen,” Jamie replied, shaking her head slowly, “I think I naturally repel men because they just_ know _that I’m not interested in them… and I am not gonna try it on with one of them if they’re a girl either.”_

_“Is that a promise?”_

_Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Promise… do you really think I’m like that?”_

_Dennis scoffed and shook his head slowly, “I wouldn’t put anything past you.”_

* * *

She had promised her dad that she wouldn’t do anything with the foreign exchange student, and at the time, she had wholeheartedly meant it. Of course, at the time she had never expected that the exchange student she’d be living with would be a stunning American woman.

As soon as she had seen Dani at the airport, she had realised just how hard it was going to be to keep her promise, but still, she intended to do just that. After all, she could still flirt with Dani, she hadn’t promised her dad anything about flirting, and she could definitely still look at Dani, she just couldn’t _do_ anything with Dani.

“Well, no Minnesota didn’t actually become a state for quite a while,” The sound of Dani’s soft voice brought Jamie from her thoughts and back to her current surroundings, watching Dani closely as she engaged in conversation with Mikey, “It didn’t become a state until 1858, which I know seems like a really long time ago now, but it was the 32nd state out of the 50 we have now… so it came quite far down the line.”

Mikey’s eyes widened slightly, “Really?” He asked, Jamie couldn’t tell if he was actually all that interested in Minnesota, or if he was more interested in Dani and anything that the blonde woman had to say.

She knew first-hand that she would gladly listen to anything Dani had to say. Even if it wasn’t that important, she would gladly listen to Dani talk all day. She had never known herself to be so drawn in by another person’s voice or accent before in her life.

“Yeah,” Dani nodded her head slowly, “Really.”

“So, it’s only been a state for like, 200 years?”

“Well less than,” Dani replied, “It’s actually only been a state for around 160 years,” She informed him, smile still in place.

Jamie had to wonder if Dani was this nice to everyone, or if she was only extending this level of friendliness to Mikey because she had to stay in the same house with him. She had personal experience in a lot of other girls she knew getting tired of Mikey and his incessant questions.

“So, what was the first state then?”

“Uh, Delaware, I think,” Dani replied, her eyebrows furrowing slightly as she thought about her answer, before she nodded her head slowly, “Yeah… Delaware.”

“And the last?”

“Hawaii,” Dani replied through a yawn, “I’m sorry about that, I’m not bored, just tired,” She assured him with a small smile, “But I do just wanna put it out there that I don’t know the order of all the states… so at some point, I am going to just stop knowing the answers to these questions,” She informed him.

“’ere, Mikey,” Jamie said, pulling her brother’s attention away from the blonde, “It’s like 8 am, mate, do you wanna maybe lay off the questions for a little bit?” She asked smiling at the younger boy, “I can’t imagine it’s much fun having to answer that many questions at this time.”

Dani shook her head slowly, “No, it’s fine,” She smiled, “I really don’t mind all that much,” She replied with a small shrug, “But there are gonna be some things I don’t have the answer to and when that happens, I am very sorry.”

Mikey shrugged, “That’s okay, I mean, if you don’t know the answers, I’m sure someone else will… probably not Jamie though,” He shook his head slowly, whispering the last part to Dani almost like it was a secret.

"Oi," Jamie protested, "I'm smart, I know some things." 

The blonde laughed and shook her head slowly, “I think she might know more than you think she does… and who knows, you might even be able to teach me something.”

“I doubt it,” He replied with a small pout, “You’re probably way smarter than I am,” He sighed his eyes softening slightly.

Jamie’s mouth dropped open a little bit at the pity card Mikey was clearly playing to try and get Dani to sympathise with him what shocked her even more, was that it seemed to work on the blonde.

“Hey, I’m really not that smart,” Dani assured him, her voice much softer than it had been before, she shook her head slowly, “I think that most of what I know is just pointless stuff, y’know? Like, state birds or state plants…” She admitted turning her mouth down slightly, “I grew up in a small town… life got pretty boring there and I had to find things to do.”

Jamie scoffed as she finished making Mikey’s breakfast, “Sounds like this place,” She admitted, “You’d be surprised at all the pointless shite I know from the days I’ve had nothing to do… I’ll admit though I didn’t know each state had its own bird.”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah we have a lot of stuff like that… don’t you guys?”

Jamie shook her head, “No… I don’t think so anyway,” She furrowed her eyebrows slightly, “If I think of anything, I’ll let you know.”

Dani smiled at the dark-haired girl, “Hey, maybe we can teach each other about our home countries?” She shrugged her shoulders.

A slow smirk crossed Jamie's face, as she nodded her head slowly, “Oh, you can teach me anything you want.”

Jamie’s smirk soon turned into a smile when she saw a slight blush creep into Dani’s cheeks, as the blonde widened her eyes slightly, before looking away from her.

* * *

“ _So, when do we get to meet this girl then… you keeping her to yourself makes me think she must be really fit_ ,” Peter admitted with a soft chuckle.

Jamie rolled her eyes and sighed, she hated phone calls or FaceTime conversations as the best of times but she hated them even more when Peter was involved in the group calls.

“Why are you suddenly so interested in meeting the exchange student?” Jamie asked, her eyes narrowing slightly as she looked at Peter, “Like, just last week it seemed like you couldn’t care less.”

“ _I’m not interested at all,”_ He shook his slowly, “ _I just wanna know what she looks like, I know you said she was alright, which means one of two things. You were trying to be nice, or she’s way more than just alright and you’re downplaying it… so, just how hot is she?”_

“She’s…” Jamie trailed off and sighed, hoping one of her other friends would cut in and say something to Peter, instead, as she looked at her screen, she could see them all waiting for her answer, “Hot, like, really hot,” Jamie admitted.

Peter laughed and nodded his head slowly, “ _I knew it, I told you all didn’t I, so… what does she look like?”_ He asked.

“I’m not gonna sit here and talk about what she looks like when she could be hanging about nearby,” Jamie shook her head slowly, “The walls are like paper in this house, and I already overheard her on the phone this morning, I don’t want her to overhear me now.”

“ _It’s gonna be pretty shit if the walls are that thin, you won’t be able to do anything with her,”_ Peter chuckled.

“ _Peter,_ ” Rebecca warned him, “ _I am sure that has been the last thing on Jamie’s mind these past two days… she’s only just met the girl._ ”

“Well, you haven’t seen her… you’ve got no idea what’s been on my mind,” Jamie joked shaking her head slowly, when she saw the unimpressed look on Rebecca’s face, she rolled her eyes and spoke again, “No, I haven’t been thinking anything like that,” She admitted, “She is really fit though… like fit might be a disservice.”

“ _Wait, really_?” Hannah asked, her eyebrows furrowing slightly, “ _I mean, usually when you call a girl that it’s a really high standard._ ”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah I know, trust me, it’s weird for me to be thinking this way but like this girl is just… she’s something else… and she has the cutest accent too… she’s got a lot going for her, put it that way.”

“ _Well, is she… y’know?”_ Owen asked.

Jamie shrugged her shoulders, “Undetermined, I don’t think we’re on good enough terms for me to outright ask her if she’s gay or not… I think I’m better off just waiting for her to tell me if she is, right?”

“ _Yeah probably,_ ” Hannah nodded her head in agreement.

“ _And if she is what exactly are you going to do?”_ Rebecca asked, “ _It’s not like you can have an actual relationship with the girl, she’s only here for the year, could you really put yourself through that?_ ”

Jamie opened her mouth to say something before she was cut off by the thick Scottish drawl of Peter Quint, “ _I don’t think it’s an actual relationship she’s interested in Becks,_ ” He replied, his tone condescending, “ _When have you ever known Jamie to have an actual_ relationship _?_ ”

Jamie rolled her eyes slightly before replying to her best friend’s question, “Well that’s the thing, I sort of promised my dad that nothing would ever happen between me and the exchange kid… that was before I saw her though…” She admitted with a soft sigh.

“ _So, you’re not going to do anything about it?_ ” Owen asked, knowing that Jamie never broke a promise, at least, not if she could help it.

Jamie shrugged her shoulders, “I guess not… although, I did promise that _I_ wouldn’t do anything… so I guess if Dani makes a move then…”

Hannah rolled her eyes and scoffed loudly, “ _You are not already trying to find a loophole in your promise… you’ve only known the girl a day._ ”

“ _Which if we’re all being honest is the longest it’s ever taken Jamie to get a girl in bed_ ,” Peter joked.

“Haha, Jamie’s a whore,” The dark-haired woman replied sardonically, “That joke never gets old, if anything it gets funnier each time, really,” She rolled her eyes and shook her head slowly.

“ _So where is she now?_ ” Rebecca asked, “ _You’re not being much of a host if you’re up here talking to us._ ”

“The last I saw of her she was talking to Mikey about random shit,” She admitted with a shrug, “He’s been all over her since she got here… and he keeps asking her all these questions about America and Minnesota and all power to her because she’s answering them,” Jamie replied with a small smile.

“ _Oh, you like this girl_ ,” Rebecca commented, a smile of her own spreading across her face, “ _Like you really like her… I’ve never seen you smile like that over anyone before_.”

Jamie shook her head slowly, her heart rate increasing, she hadn’t even realised she’d been smiling when talking about Dani, and she knew it wasn’t usual for her to smile that way when talking about anyone, let alone a girl she had met the day before.

She opened her mouth to reply, but soon found that no words came out, instead, she shook her head again, and looked away from her friends.

“ _Oh, you so like this girl,_ ” Rebecca smiled.

“I’m hanging up now,” Jamie shook her head and rolled her eyes.

“ _If she turns out to be gay can we double date?_ ” Rebecca asked, a teasing tone to her voice.

“Bye guys,” Jamie sighed before she hung up from the video call, leaving her friends to talk about her and her not so subtle crush as much as they liked.

She placed her phone on her bedside table, and pushed herself up from her bed before heading down the stairs, and going straight to the kitchen, “Ey up, kidda,” Jamie greeted Mikey with a bright smile, ruffling his hair as she walked past him and headed to the fridge, “Where’s Dani?” She asked, furrowing her eyebrows, she’d been hoping to see the blonde in the kitchen, still talking to Mikey, wearing that soft smile.

“She went outside into the garden,” Mikey replied with a small smile, as he smoothed his hair back out, “She said she’d be back in soon though and that she just wanted some fresh air,” There was a beat of silence before he spoke again, “I like Dani… she seems nice.”

“Awwh, have you got a bit of thing for her?” Jamie asked, a smile of her own spreading across her lips, she had known he had a crush on Dani the minute he saw her but having the chance to tease him for it now made her a little happier than it should.

“No,” Mikey replied quickly, a blush spreading to his cheeks.

“You’ve got the hots for an older woman… I have a bit of respect for that, actually,” She chuckled as she opened the can of coke, she had retrieved from the fridge.”

Mikey shook his head, “I don’t have a crush on her,” He replied defensively, with a pout etched on his face.

Jamie nodded her head laughing even more than she already had been, “Yeah you do…you proper fancy her,” She shrugged her shoulders and looked out of the window to see Dani sitting in the garden alone, “I mean, it’s kind of cute… and I definitely don’t blame you… she is pretty,” There was a beat of silence before Jamie spoke again, “though she might be too pretty… what do you think?” She turned her attention back to her brother.

“Can someone be too pretty?” Mikey asked, his eyebrows furrowing slightly.

Jamie nodded her head before looking out of the window again, “Oh trust me they definitely can be… and she is,” She sighed, watching as the blonde checked her phone, and placed it on the small table just in front of her, “I’m gonna go out for cig,” She informed the younger boy.

“More like you’re gonna go out to talk to Dani,” He teased.

Jamie nodded her head, “Yeah, I’m gonna go do that too,” She replied with a smile before she headed out of the back door and into the garden, her eyes never leaving the blonde, watching her closely as she tilted her head back, her eyes closed basking in the sunlight, “Hey, you alright out here by yourself?” Jamie asked, her voice quiet.

Dani opened her eyes slowly, before she looked over her shoulder, smiling softly before she nodded her head, “Yeah, I’m okay,” She replied, Jamie was finding herself enjoying the sound of Dani’s accent far too much.

“Are you sure?” She asked.

“Yeah, I’ve just been waiting for a call, and I haven’t received it yet,” She explained with a small shrug, “I’m starting to think it’s never going to happen.”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, looking at the phone on the table, laid with the screen facing down, “Well, y’know what they say, a watched phone never rings,” She joked with a small smile, earning herself a playful eye roll from Dani, “Is that the reason you’re sitting out here alone?”

Dani shook her head slowly, “I’m not sitting out here because I’m waiting for a phone call, but this just seems as good a place as any to wait,” She smiled, “It’s a pretty nice yard.”

Jamie nodded her head as she looked around them, the perfectly level grass, the wooden crates filled with vegetables and flowers she was growing with her dad, the small, solar-powered water feature placed on the patio next to the outdoor seating area, it felt good to hear someone say it was a nice place to sit and wait.

“Thanks,” Jamie replied, “It, uh, took me and my dad long enough to get it looking like this,” She admitted, “I mean, you should have seen it before… the garden had loads of bald patches in it from where we’d all played as kids, and this whole patio area wasn’t here it was just patchy dry grass,” She explained.

“You did this?”

“Yeah, last year I got into some pretty big trouble and got grounded for all of summer break… my dad had wanted to do something with the garden for a while and decided as punishment I should help him do it... that's sort of what my dad does for a living," She explained with a shrug, "But uh, what started out as a punishment actually became something that I really liked.”

“I guess that worked out for the best then?” Dani asked.

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “I guess… I’m still pissed I missed the entire summer break last year, but I can’t complain too much because I did get a new hobby that I carried on to this year,” She nodded in the direction of the crates.

“I didn’t have you pegged as the gardening type,” Dani admitted.

“No?” Jamie asked, the blonde shook her head slowly, “What did you have me pegged as?”

Dani shrugged, “I don’t know,” She smiled, “Just not this,” She shook her head slowly, “Maybe a gamer or a musician something like that.”

“Don’t get me wrong, I like gaming a little,” She replied, “But that’s more Mikey’s thing and Denny’s too.”

“Yeah, you said Mikey liked gaming,” Dani sighed, “I heard him a little last night,” She divulged, “He was saying some choice things,” She chuckled, “Very different to the kid that was talking to me earlier.”

“Yeah, he’s like that,” Jamie smiled, “Speaking of him, I’m really sorry if he’s annoying you,” She sighed, “He doesn’t know how to act around pretty girls,” She shrugged her shoulders slightly.

“Is that so?” Dani asked and Jamie didn’t miss the way her eyes seemed to light up when she’d called her pretty.

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah,” She replied, “I’m sure he’ll get there one day… unless he’s anything like Denny and then he’ll always be hopeless.”

Dani smiled and nodded her head, “Well y’know not everyone can be as smooth as you.”

Jamie shrugged, “Guess I just lucked out,” She replied, sighing and sitting down in the chair next to Dani’s, “You can tell me if it’s annoying you, you know? I can have a word with him and ask him to calm down a little.” 

“No,” Dani shook her head slowly, “I think he’s cute,” She shrugged, “I don’t mind him being that interested in stuff, I just worry about not being able to answer one of his questions… I don’t think I could handle him looking disappointed.”

Jamie chuckled and shook her head, “That wouldn’t disappoint him, he’d use it as an excuse to do some research with you and for you both to find out the answer,” There was a beat of silence before Jamie spoke again, “You’re, uh, really good with him… a lot of people just get annoyed with all of his questions, you don’t… he’s been asking you pointless stuff all morning and you’ve answered _all_ of his questions."

“I guess I just really like kids,” Dani admitted with a shrug, “And I like his questions, too… I think it’s sweet how interested he is in all this stuff.”

“Not this stuff… just you,” Jamie informed her with a small smile, “I think he’s got a bit of a crush on you… I mean, I can see why he would,” She admitted, her smile turning into a smirk when a slight blush crept into Dani’s cheeks, “Seeing how you are with Mikey actually only adds to that… you’re like a real-life Mary Poppins… well y’know… without all the drug use,” Jamie shrugged.

“Wait, the drug use?” Dani asked, shaking her head slowly, “What movie did you watch as a kid?”

“Dani… they spend a good chunk of that movie living in a cartoon world… c’mon, that’s drugs and you can’t even sit there and try to deny it.”

Dani chuckled and shook her head slowly, “Uh, I guess.”

“Spoon full of sugar my arse, more like a spoon full of acid,” Jamie joked.

Dani laughed again, and the sound made Jamie’s heart flutter a little, it was a sound she could definitely get used to, a sound she wanted to hear over and over again, especially if she was the cause of it.

“Do you wanna ruin any other parts of my childhood?”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, sure, just give me a second to think of something else,” She joked.

Dani rolled her eyes, and shook her head slowly, “You’re silly.”

“Do you like it though?” Jamie asked.

Dani nodded her head slowly, just as she was about to open her mouth to say something, her phone buzzed across the table snapping their attention away from each other, Dani lifted her phone, and sighed, “I should take this.”

Jamie nodded her head, “Yeah, no problem.”

“Uh, I’ll be back out when I’m done… this really won’t take long.”

“See you in a bit, Poppins.”

“Oh, is that what you’re gonna call me now?”

Jamie nodded her head, “Yeah, unless you don’t like it?”

Dani shook her head slowly, “I never said that,” She replied with a smile before she answered the phone, “Hello,” She spoke softly walking away from Jamie and heading into the house, the brunette looked over her shoulder, never taking her eyes off of the other woman until she was out of eyesight.

Jamie could tell, that being around Dani for the next year was going to make keeping her promise to her dad extremely hard.


	6. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has commented and left kudos on this fic and to those of you who have bookmarked and subscribed too, I really appreciate it!! I wanted to give you a faster update this time as soon I am going to be busier than usual and don't know when I will next have a chance to update either of my fics!! Hopefully, it won't be too long!!

**Five**

_“Eddie, it’s not the end of the world,” Dani spoke softly as she watched Eddie pouting for the fourth consecutive hour of that day, she hadn’t thought the news was that bad, at least, she hadn’t taken it as badly as he had, “So we’re gonna be in a different city to each other, I don’t think it’s that bad.”_

_“But the whole point in us doing this together was so that you wouldn’t be alone out there and that we’d be able to be together.”_

_“It feels more like you signed up to it to keep tabs on me at this point,” She admitted._

_He narrowed his eyes slightly and shook his head slowly, “That’s not true at all… I signed up for this with you so that we could experience it together so that we could have this opportunity together… but now we’re not going to get the chance to do that?”_

_“Eddie a lot of people are being separated for this.”_

_“Yeah, well we’re not being,” He shook his head, “I don’t want that… can you honestly tell me you do want a long-distance relationship during this?”_

_She sighed, and turned her mouth down in thought, before she shook her head slowly, “No, of course not,” She replied, “But I was sort of preparing myself for one since we put our names down… you didn’t do the same?”_

_Edmund shook his head, “No, I was being optimistic, I just thought the school would send us to the same place, y’know, given our circumstance.”_

_“Eddie do you really think the school cares about the fact we’re a couple? I doubt they even looked at that type of stuff when deciding where to send us,” She shrugged._

_“Yeah, well they’re going to take it into account now because I’m gonna talk to them about it,” He replied, “First thing tomorrow I’m heading to the office and I’m asking them to put us in the same city.”_

_“Or you could just, y’know, accept this for what it is and leave it.”_

_“Jesus, Dani, it’s not like I’m asking them to put us in the same house… or even the same school, I was just talking about the same city, but since being around me seems to be such a turn off for you, I guess we’ll leave it.”_

_Dani’s eyes widened slightly, “Eddie, I_ never _said that… you’re putting those words into my mouth.”_

_“You didn’t have to,” He shook his head slowly, “What you’re saying is enough for me.”_

_“All I meant was that we both put our names down, and we were both lucky enough to be selected to go to the same country, I mean, think about it this way, you could be on your way to France or Latvia and we might not even get to see each other for the year… but we have_ both _been selected for the England exchange… I think maybe we should accept that as a win… we will be able to see each other still Eddie, maybe not constantly, but we will get to see each other.”_

_Eddie sighed and shook his head slowly, “I guess,” He replied, giving her a half-hearted shrug, “But how far away is Birmingham to Leeds anyway?” He asked._

_Dani shrugged, “I really don’t know, but probably not that far… why don’t you google it?” She asked and Eddie sighed again and pulled his phone out of his pocket, “Just make sure you search Birmingham, England and not Birmingham, Alabam—”_

_“Yeah, well that’s pretty obvious isn’t it?” He replied dryly._

_Dani held her hands up, "Sorry, I was just trying to lighten the mood a little,” She admitted with a soft sigh, “But next time I’ll just let you pout over things,” There was a beat of silence as Eddie checked the distance, “Well?”_

_Edmund locked his phone before placing it back in his pocket, “Two hours,” He replied dryly._

_“See, I told you… it’s not that far at all… the UK is pretty small in comparison to other places,” She smiled at the dark-haired man, “And I am pretty sure that there are ways we’ll be able to see each other… they have modes of transport there, y’know?” She joked, smiling when she saw a small smile pull at Eddie’s mouth, “Yeah, there’s that handsome smile.”_

_He sighed and rolled his eyes at his girlfriend, “I guess I’m just gonna miss seeing you around every day,” He replied, his tone soft, “Like, I just don’t know what I’m gonna do if I can’t see you as often as I do now… you’re my best friend, Dani, and there is no one on this earth that I would rather spend my time with.”_

_Dani nodded her head slowly, “I know… and you’re my best friend too, but it’s just not realistic for us to spend all of our time together… that’s pretty co-dependent actually,” She sighed, “I just think that this experience will be really good for us… I really,_ really _do.”_

_He nodded his head slowly, “Yeah, I guess so.”_

_Dani reached her hand over the table, placing it gently on top of his and giving it a reassuring squeeze, “I promise that everything is gonna be okay with this…”_

_He placed his other hand on top of hers and gave her a tight-lipped smile, “I know it will be… or I hope it will be.”_

_“Are you not excited?” She asked, “In a matter of months, you’re going to meet the people on that paper, you’re going to be in that city, having the time of your life and I promise you Eddie you’re not even gonna be thinking about me the way you think you are.”_

* * *

“Hello,” She spoke softly, walking away from Jamie and willing herself not to look over her shoulder at the brunette, she gave Mikey a smile and a wave as she quickly walked through the house, heading to her bedroom.

She heard Edmund sigh on the other end of the line before he spoke, “ _Hey_ ,” He replied quietly, before taking another deep breath, “ _Look, I just wanted to apologise for how I treated you earlier… calling you that early in the morning and trying to talk to you about the future wasn’t fair and I understand how stressful that must have been for you… so I just want you to know that I’m sorry._ ”

Dani smiled slightly at his words, before she nodded her head slowly, “That’s okay,” She replied her tone soft, “I know that you didn’t mean anything bad in doing it and that you were just trying to think about the future, but you have to realise how much it terrifies me when people do that.” 

Like always, just from that one simple word, Dani was thrown back into the pitch-black jungle, with the beast gaining on her, its footsteps becoming louder and louder, and faster and faster, in tandem with her heart rate. She had no idea how she was supposed to plan for their future when she could hardly think about it. Perhaps, somewhere, deep down she knew it only happened when she thought about _their_ future.

If she thought about going her own way, leaving the state, and going to a college that _she_ wanted and not the college everyone else wanted for her, thinking about the future became a little easier.

“I’m sorry that what we spoke about earlier upset you too,” Dani admitted, “I didn’t want it to, and I really didn’t think it would, I thought you’d be okay with me not applying to colleges in Minnesota… or y’know… maybe not going back at all.”

“ _Yeah, it wasn’t the best thing to hear… especially considering that’s what I want. That’s what we always talked about and now… it seems like…”_ He trailed off, a soft sigh escaping him _, “I’m doing it again, aren’t I?”_

“A little,” Dani replied with a soft smile, “Look, I’m not against talking about this stuff, but do we have to do it right now? Is this not something that can wait until we at least finish college… y’know when we start getting jobs or further studying, does it have to _right now_?”

“ _I guess it can wait_ ,” He replied, there was a beat of silence before he spoke again, _“How’s your day going?”_

Dani smiled at his change of conversation, appreciating it more than he would know, “It’s going good, just talking to Jamie and Mikey… Mikey has a lot of questions, like, a lot.”

“ _I bet that got annoying?_ ”

Dani shook her head, “No, it’s like I told Jamie I don’t really mind his questions, I think it’s sweet he cares so much about where I’m from and he’s making an effort with me.”

“ _And Jamie, how’s she been?_ ”

“Jamie is…” Dani trailed off, thinking of the best ways to describe Jamie, her mind coming up with a plethora of things, none of which seemed entirely right to say to Eddie. Instead, she settled for a simple, “… Nice.”

“ _Yeah, you said that this morning, but I was hoping for a bit more information on the girl,_ ” He admitted with a small chuckle, “ _Usually you’re pretty good with words, but it comes to her and that seems to be the only thing you can say_.”

“I don’t know what else you want me to say about someone I’ve only just met.”

There were many things she could have told him about Jamie, she could have told him how charming she was, how charismatic she was, how her smile seemed to leave Dani completely and utterly speechless.

But she knew, those descriptions would come with far too many questions, so, for the sake of this conversation, _nice_ would just have to suffice.

“But what about you, have you spoken to the host family yet?”

“ _Yeah, I got talking to them all today… they seem like good people, Beth has really made an effort with me today, she said that yesterday she just wanted me to be able to get settled and just leave me to do what I had to do… but no, she’s great, or she seems it._ ”

“That’s awesome,” Dani could feel the smile spreading across her face, at his words, “Is Beth the one who put her name down as a host?”

“ _Uh, yeah she is, she’s the same age as us… you don’t have to worry though.”_

Dani furrowed her eyebrows at his comment and gave a slightly nervous chuckle, “Uh, I wasn’t worried, but you saying that makes me think I have something to worry about,” She admitted.

Dani had never been a jealous person, she had never had that trait, without Eddie even telling her she didn’t have to worry, she hadn’t been. But hearing him say it, stirred something inside of her, something that she couldn’t place.

 _“No, you really don’t I just didn’t want you worrying… I mean, I know how I felt this morning when I heard the name_ Mikey, _so I just didn’t want you to feel that way… but you know that I only have eyes for you and that I only ever have had eyes for you_.”

“I know you do,” Dani nodded her head slowly, “And you know I only have eyes for you too, right?” She asked, her throat feeling a little tighter as she spoke to him, something she had never known happen before when she promised Eddie that she wasn’t interested in anyone else.

“ _I know you say that you do an—”_

“Then you should believe me… have you never known me to say something I didn’t mean?”

“ _No, I guess not_.”

There was something about his tone of voice, something unsaid, but something that Dani understand, all the same, something she knew herself to be true.

No, she never had said anything that she didn’t mean, _but there’s a first time for everything._

* * *

The phone call with Eddie didn’t last long, just as Dani had suspected it wouldn’t, with more small talk than an actual conversation of substance, after hanging up the phone to Edmund, she replied to a text she had received from her mother, again, the text had no real substance to it, just simple small talk.

She slid her phone into her pocket and headed back down the stairs, her legs carrying her straight to the garden, hoping the brunette would still be sat outside, giving Mikey another small smile as she walked past him.

“Sorry about that,” Dani said as she stepped back into the garden, her eyes widening slightly when she saw Jamie and Dennis both sitting in the garden, she hadn’t been expecting to see the older man sitting next to his daughter, each of them smoking.

Jamie looked over her shoulder and smiled, “Don’t worry about it,” She replied, “You can’t help being popular… your mum… again?” She asked, though there was something about Jamie’s tone that seemed almost disbelieving that Dani’s mother could have called her a second time that day.

“No,” She replied, shaking her head slowly, “Uh, just a friend,” She lied, “They’re doing the exchange program too and they just wanted to check in to see how my first night went.”

“Oh, well that was nice of them,” Dennis replied, “Where have they been sent, anywhere nice?” He asked.

“They’re in Birmingham,” Dani informed them, her eyebrows furrowed slightly when Jamie gave a small chuckle, “What, is it bad there?” She asked.

Jamie shook her head, “No, it’s not that it’s just, the way you said Birmingham made me smile a little bit,” She admitted.

“Why am I saying it wrong?”

“No, not wrong,” Jamie shook her head quickly, “You just say it differently,” There was a moment of silence before Jamie spoke again, “But you have nothing to worry about… it’s really nice.”

Dennis sighed and put his cigarette out in the ashtray on the small table, “And on that note, I am going inside,” He announced pushing himself up from his spot next to Jamie, giving Dani a small smile as he walked past her, “Oh and Jamie, remember what we spoke about?” He asked, turning around to face his daughter.

Jamie rolled her eyes, before moving her finger above her head in a circular motion to mimic the shape of a halo, he gave her a slightly disbelieving look before walking back into the house.

Dani chuckled at the exchange before taking the seat next to Jamie, “What was all that about?”

“Nothing,” Jamie replied, taking a drag of her cigarette, “That was just my dad being my dad,” She waved her free hand dismissively, “So, how’s your friend doing?”

“They’re good,” Dani replied, being careful to not specify a gender, “They’re not happy about having to do all this alone and being in a different city… they hoped we’d be together and they’re just in a little bit of a mood about it… they have been since they first found out where they’d be going,” There was a beat of silence before Dani spoke again, “Do I really say Birmingham that badly?” She asked, her eyebrows furrowed slightly.

Jamie gave her a small, reassuring smile as she shook her head, “No, it’s not bad at all… as I said, it’s nice, just different… you put a lot of emphasis on the R and the ham… we don’t… it’s just Birmingham.”

Dani shrugged her shoulders, “Well I have to assume I’m saying it right considering that’s how it’s spelled… you definitely don’t pronounce it properly… Birmingum,” Dani did her best to replicate Jamie’s accent as she said the word, lowering her voice just slightly to try and match the pitch of Jamie’s voice. 

Jamie widened her eyes slightly, as a small, breathy laugh slipped past her lips, “Someone’s getting a bit ballsy,” She joked, shaking her head slowly, “Y’know I’m not sure that I like you anymore… that was ‘urtful,” She chuckled.

“Truthful,” Dani replied with a small smile and a shrug, “But… I like how you say it too,” She admitted, if she was being completely honest with herself, she more than _liked_ how Jamie said it, she more than _liked_ how Jamie said a lot of things.

A smug smile spread across Jamie’s lips, “Of course you do because my accent is great,” She replied, her confidence and full conviction making Dani smile, and making Jamie just that bit more endearing.

“It is,” Dani nodded her head in agreement, “If that’s how people talk here, I think I’m really gonna like this place,” She admitted with a smile, though she couldn’t help but wonder if it was the accent she liked, or if it was simply Jamie’s voice she liked or a mixture of the two.

All she knew was that she could sit and listen to Jamie talk all day.

She had never felt such a strong appreciation for another accent before in her life.

* * *

She’d spent a good part of her day with Jamie and Mickey, playing countless video games with the two siblings as she answered even more of Mikey’s questions, she had no idea how he could possibly still have more questions to ask her, but every time she thought he had reached the end of his queries, he somehow seemed to find more.

As much as she liked spending time with Jamie, and Mikey, and as much as she had enjoyed answering all of Mikey’s questions, she was happy when the younger boy received a message to hang out with his friends, putting an end to the gaming session.

After Mikey had left the house, the two women moved to Jamie’s room to watch a movie, though she was loath to admit it, Dani was having an increasingly hard time focusing on the movie when Jamie was so close to her.

The dark-haired woman shifted slightly on the bed, inadvertently moving even closer to Dani, Jamie’s arm brushed against hers, and at the slight amount of contact, Dani felt the fine hairs on her arms stand on end as goosebumps seemed to break out over her body.

She stole a glance at Jamie, a blush rising in her cheeks as Jamie looked to her, their eyes locking for the briefest of moments before Dani looked away, willing herself to focus all of her attention on the screen.

“You alright?” Jamie asked, her smooth voice grabbing Dani’s attention almost instantly.

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, I’m fine why?” She asked, giving Jamie a small, somewhat nervous smile.

Jamie shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, you just seem more interested in me than you are the film,” She replied with a small smile, “I won’t lie, it’s quite flattering,” She admitted.

Dani felt the blush in her cheeks deepen at Jamie’s words, she had known she’d been caught, she had just hoped that Jamie wouldn’t act so smug over it, she had hoped that Jamie would brush it off as nothing more than a casual glance.

What made her blush even more than that, was how much she seemed to like Jamie’s smug side, the small, half-smile, and slightly cocky tone of voice making butterflies erupt in her stomach, a feeling of attraction washing over her like she had never known before.

 _No. Not an attraction. Admiration._ She reminded herself.

She wasn’t attracted to Jamie, she simply _admired_ how confident the other woman was. Dani had always found confidence to be an all too endearing trait in a person and Jamie had confidence in spades.

Dani knew that Jamie’s confidence, paired with her soft, pretty features, her voice, and _that accent_ , made her a dangerously endearing person, and made the lines between admiration and attraction far too blurred for her liking.

“I’m not uninterested in the movie,” Dani admitted with a small shrug, though she was sure that if Jamie asked her any question about this movie, she would get it wrong, she hadn’t paid attention to a single minute of it.

“And me?” Jamie asked and Dani furrowed her brows slightly, “Are you interested in me?”

“Again… I’m not _un_ interested,” She admitted, her words slow and deliberate.

“I think I can be okay with that,” Jamie smiled, “But if you are bored of the movie, we can always watch something else… or _do_ something else?”

Dani’s heart skipped a beat at Jamie words, and the slight suggestive tone that she used, she could only imagine the things she and Jamie could do together, “I’m sure we could do something else… but what exactly do you have in mind?”

She watched as a small smile crossed Jamie’s face slowly, “Oh, I could think of a lot of things I’d like to do with you…” There was a beat of silence before she spoke again, “But I think… for now… maybe we should just _try_ and keep things PG… yeah?”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah… I can do that,” She smiled, her words coming out slightly breathless.

“I guess we’ll have to wait and see if I can,” Jamie smirked, before she screwed her face up just slightly, pushing herself into a sitting position, creating a small amount of space between them, Dani would have been lying if she said she wasn’t disappointed by the sudden change in Jamie’s demeanour.

“Is everything okay?” She asked, worry seeping into her system as she thought about all the possible things Jamie could say next.

“Yeah, everything is fine… But I think we should get out of the house,” She shrugged, “I mean, let’s face it, neither of us has actually been watching this film… I know I’ve been a bit distracted by something else,” She replied, a half-smile appearing on her face.

Her smirk told Dani all she needed to know, it was nice to know that Jamie had been just as distracted by her as she had been by Jamie, “Yeah, okay we can do that,” Dani replied, she was sure she would have agreed to just about anything if Jamie kept looking at her and smiling at her like that, “Where are we going?”

“I don’t know,” Jamie shrugged, “I just thought it might be nice to take a drive somewhere… see what happens I guess… unless you’d rather have a clear plan?”

“No, I’m fine with just… seeing what happens.” 

“Okay then,” Jamie smiled pushing herself up from the bed fully, and holding her hand out to the blonde, “Let’s go see what happens,” She smiled.

Dani took a deep breath, before taking Jamie’s hand in her own and allowing the dark-haired woman to pull her up from the bed.

They’d left Jamie’s house with very little questioning from Dennis, Dani couldn’t help but notice how different her mother was to the British man, she knew that had she and someone she had only just met, said they were going to take a drive somewhere, her mother would have bombarded them with countless questions and would have tried to get them to change their mind and stay in the house.

“Your dad seems pretty laid back about stuff,” Dani commented as she climbed into the passenger side of the truck, “My mom would have been questioning us for so long that it’d be far too late to even do anything by the time she got done.”

Jamie chuckled and nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, he can be laid back sometimes… I mean, I wouldn’t try and push him too far, old Dennis does have his limits… I’ve hit them a few times,” She admitted, “My dad has pretty strict rules for inside the house, and he expects us all to follow them to the letter… but if we wanna go out with a … friend,” Jamie sighed, she seemed to stumble on the word _friend,_ "He usually trusts our judgment.”

“Oh, so inside the house, you have to be on your best behaviour and outside of the house…”

“Well let’s say what my dad doesn’t know won’t hurt him,” She chuckled, “Why, you planning on getting up to some mischief while you’re here, Poppins?” She asked, stealing a glance at Dani as she drove down the quiet street, “Because if you are… I can help you with that,” She smirked.

“I don’t doubt that for a second,” Dani replied with a small smile.

* * *

“Do you have even a rough plan of where we’re going?” Dani asked, “Or when you said to see what happens did you literally mean you were just gonna drive in any old direction and see where we got to?”

“No, I have a plan,” Jamie admitted with a small smile, “I didn’t have a plan until we got in the truck and then one came to me,” She shrugged, “Could be a terrible plan for all I know, and you might hate it but, I don’t see the harm in trying.”

“I doubt I’ll hate it,” Dani sighed, shrugging her shoulders slightly, “I’m pretty easy to impress.”

“Well, that bodes well for me,” She teased, “It’s good to know I don’t have to make too much of an effort and I’ll still be able to sweep you off your feet,” She smirked, stealing a look at the blonde woman, “Anything else I should know about how to impress you.”

Dani smiled and gave a breathy laugh, she couldn’t believe just how easy it was for Jamie to get a reaction from her, whether the other woman knew it was or not, “Well I could tell you,” Dani nodded her head slowly, “But I think it’s more fun for you to find out yourself, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I think that could be a lot more fun,” Jamie nodded her head slowly, as she spared a glance at Dani, her eyes scanning her face, as their eyes locked, Dani knew she had never seen prettier eyes in her life.

They weren’t in the car for much longer before Jamie pulled into a small, almost empty parking lot, with nothing but views of rolling hills and tiny houses in front of them, and a small castle tower to the side of them.

Without a word, Dani stepped out of the car, the slight breeze weaving through her hair, she narrowed her eyes slightly against the sunlight and looked out at the view just in front of them.

Jamie climbed out of the truck and stood beside Dani, “So, remember when you said you were easily impressed?” Jamie asked with a small, slightly nervous laugh, “Well does this cut it?”

Dani shrugged her shoulders slightly, “That’s undetermined,” She admitted, “I guess I’ll have to see a little more of this place before I make my mind up on that.”

“I’m guessing it’s gonna be a no then,” Jamie replied, “Because Castle Hill really doesn’t offer much more than some pretty nice views,” She shrugged, “I just thought it could be nice to get out and get some fresh air… and this place seemed as good as any,” Jamie explained as she began to walk up a steep set of steps.

“I don’t know, I think the right views can be impressive,” Dani replied, reassuring the other woman, “And it’ll be especially impressive for me, I’ve only ever seen views of the place I grew up in, seeing Leeds from a new perspective could be nice.”

“Slight problem there, Poppins,” Jamie smiled, “We’re actually not in Leeds anymore,” She sighed, “We’re in a totally new place now… this is Huddersfield,” She gestured to the open space in front of them, “Hope that’s not a deal-breaker?”

Dani shook her head slowly, “No,” There was a beat of silence before she spoke again, “But all the steps might be, seriously, how many are there?” She complained, with a small laugh.

“Well, to get the best views we’ve got to go up quite a few more yet,” Jamie replied, “So if you’re not into it we can always turn around and I can take you somewhere else?”

“No, I’ll be fine, it was more of a wondering than anything else.”

“Sure, it was,” Jamie nodded her head slowly, a small smirk pulling at her lips, “All I’m hearing is that you can’t keep up with me…” She teased, “Which might actually be an issue if we’re gonna cause mischief together.”

Dani shook her head slowly, “Oh I can keep up with you,” She scoffed, “That is not gonna be an issue. _At all_.”

“Really?” Jamie asked, and Dani could already hear the challenge in her voice.

“Yes?” She replied, almost certain that she was going to regret her decision.

“I’ll race you,” Jamie smiled, she made a movement to set off at a run before Dani reached her hand out and took hold of Jamie’s arm gently.

“Please don’t,” Dani chuckled shaking her head, “My confidence in my ability to keep up with you was definitely just bravado.”

“That’s what I thought,” Jamie replied, her usual air of confidence edging its way into her tone of voice, “Though, I wouldn’t mind taking it easy for someone like you,” She smirked, her voice dropping just a little lower as she began to walk up the steps once more.

They continued up the steps, having an easy conversation with each other, Dani had never known herself to get along with someone else so quickly, she had been so used to awkward silences when first meeting other people, but even as conversation lulled, with Jamie it never felt awkward.

When the reached the top of the steps, Dani gave a slight sigh of relief, her eyes widening as she looked around at the town below them, “As awful as those steps were, this is kind of worth it,” She commented.

Jamie nodded her head in agreement, “It looks better at night when everything is all lit up, but uh, if you want to see it like that in the summer you’d have to be here until pretty late at night… worth it though…” The brunette sighed, before turning to face Dani, “Would I be pushing my luck too much if I said let’s go to the top of the castle?”

Dani looked behind them at the small tower, and turned her mouth down in thought, “Is the view better up there?”

Jamie shrugged, “Depends if you’re gonna be up there or not,” She replied.

“Oh, that was corny,” Dani chuckled, shaking her head slowly.

“Served its purpose though, it got you to smile,” Jamie replied a smile of her own spreading across her face.

Her words and smile making Dani’s heart flutter, it had only been two days, but already she knew that being around Jamie was going to make convincing herself that she simply admired other women a lot harder than it ever had been before.


	7. Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always a Huge thank you to everyone who has interacted with this fic!! All your subscriptions, comments, bookmarks, and kudos' mean the world to me!! Just thank you so much!! I hope you enjoy this chapter!!
> 
> So it's been a long time since I have uploaded a chapter here, if you read my other fic Stop Me From Falling you will have already seen the author's note where I explained my updates are so late because I recently had surgery and am still recovering from that. Hopefully, this chapter will make up for the long wait as this is the longest chapter of this fic yet. 
> 
> The way Jamie's school works in this fic is based on how my high school / sixth form/ college, etc worked. Also fun fact!! Years ago in England, you could leave high school at 16 (That was the age I left high school but then I went to college to do my A-levels / BTEC) 
> 
> I apologise for any mistakes in this chapter about how American neighbourhoods look, I could only use the internet, and what I have seen in movies and TV shows, also, I have some minor knowledge from conversations I have had with Shananigans402 in the past. So if anything is wrong or seems wrong I am VERY SORRY.

**Six**

_Jamie left Mr. Wingrave’s office that afternoon feeling only marginally better than when she’d entered; she’d had to endure anther meeting about the exchange program, another meeting where all she could think was how much she didn’t want to be part of this program and just how much she hated being ‘friends’ with Peter._

_She’d made a mental note to never get involved in another bet with the Scottish man, though she knew that mental note would go ignored the next time Peter challenged her to anything._

_She was far too competitive when it came to Peter._

_Jamie knew the second he came up with a dare, or a challenge for her, she would fall into his trap, just as she had with the bet that had landed her here._

_She figured she should have known that Peter would only come up with that bet if he_ knew for sure _that Ricard Gere’s middle name was Tiffany, and of course, he would know something like that._

_Peter had very few interests, much like her, but if there was one thing he knew anything about, it was facts about movies and actors and actresses. Jamie was pretty sure the only class Peter actually cared about, was his media studies, class._

_Just like her, he had only stayed in education because he had to. Jamie longed for the days when you could leave school at 16, to return, she knew had she had the same chance to finish high school in year 11 like her father had, she would have left school and started to look for work straight away._

_How times had changed._

_She slowly made her way back to the year 12 and 13 social area to meet with her friends, dragging her feet all the way. She entered the small room, ignoring some of the looks she got from her ‘classmates’, and made her way over to Rebecca, Peter, Hannah, and Owen._

_“Here she is,” Owen chimed with a bright smile._

_“Another meeting about the program, or were you actually in trouble this time?” Rebecca asked, leaning further into Peter, as his arm tightened around her. Jamie would never fully understand what Rebecca saw in Peter, sure he was a good-looking guy, but there wasn’t much below the surface that made him even remotely likable._

_“The program,” Jamie replied, “I never thought I’d be saying this, but I wish I’d been sent to Mr. Wingrave because I was in trouble… we found out who we’re gonna be the hosts for today.”_

_“And did that go the way you wanted it to?” Rebecca asked, taking in the slight frown on Jamie’s face._

_“Uh, yeah, I guess,” Jamie shrugged, “I mean, I didn’t want any of them, because I don’t wanna do this but—”_

_“I know you don’t… a little birdie told me you tried to get them to have me as a host and not you,” Rebecca cut her off with a small smile, “That was sneaky.”_

_Jamie shrugged again and gave the other woman a small smile, “Can’t blame a girl for trying.”_

_Rebecca shook her head slowly, “No, I suppose not… so who’d you get?”_

_“I got the American, apparently she’s called Danielle Clayton… I can only imagine what she’s going to be like,” Jamie grumbled._

_“Y’know, you should never judge a book by its cover, Jamie,” Hannah shook her head slowly._

_“Or in this case its title,” Owen teased with a small shrug._

_Jamie knew that she shouldn’t judge Danielle without meeting her, she knew that she hated it when people judged her without even having the chance to get to know her. She had been judged most of her life simply because of her mother and she hated it. But still, she couldn’t help but feel slightly cynical about the whole thing._

_She sighed and rolled her eyes, “I know you’re right,” She replied, “But…”_

_“But what?” Hannah asked._

_“Honestly, I don’t know what I was gonna say,” Jamie admitted shrugging, “I think I was just gonna try and clutch at straws, but I couldn’t actually come up with anything.”_

_“Well, I am sure that she is just going to be perfectly splendid,” Rebecca smiled._

_That was something Jamie loved about Rebecca, she always found a way to see the good side of any situation, always tried to see the good in any person, as she did with Peter. Jamie knew that no matter how bad things got, Rebecca would always be there to find a silver lining to even the darkest cloud._

_She guessed that’s what made them such good friends, they balanced each other out._

_While Rebecca remained ever the optimist, Jamie saw herself as more of a realist, though some would (and did) call her a pessimist._

_“I hope you’re right,” She sighed, “Because the last thing I need is to be living with some bitch for the next year.”_

_“I don’t think you’ve got to worry about that, I think it’s the Yank that has to worry about living with a bitch,” Peter commented, no hint of joking to his voice._

_Jamie narrowed her eyes slightly, glaring at him, “Why are you here?” She asked, “And I don’t mean that as in why are in this room with us, I just mean in general… why are you still in my life?”_

_“Because you all think I’m hilarious,” Peter shrugged, “That and Becks here likes having me around.”_

_“Yeah… well no one knows why she does,” Jamie shot back with a scowl._

_“Y’know Jamie, you’re just proving my point about you being a bitch when you act like this,” He smirked, “That scowl doesn’t suit you…” He shook his head slowly, “You’d be a lot prettier if you smiled a bit more, darling.”_

_Jamie opened her mouth to say something before Rebecca cut her off, “Don’t be like that,” She turned her head to look at Peter, her brows furrowing tightly over her eyes, “Jamie isn’t a bitch…” Rebecca shook her head slowly, “And I am sure that you and Danielle will be fine when she gets here.”_

_Jamie shook her head slowly, choosing to ignore Peter’s comments, and focus more on the kind, supportive words of her best friend, she knew the best way to get to Peter was to simply ignore whatever he had to say._

_“I hope you’re right,” Jamie sighed shaking her head slowly, “I really don’t know what I’m gonna do if I have to live with someone that’s a total dick.”_

_Now that Jamie knew who she was going to be hosting for, the whole thing felt that bit more real, and the more Jamie thought about it, and the more she thought about having to welcome someone else into her home and her life, the more she began to worry._

* * *

Her walk with Dani had been far more enjoyable than she had even thought possible, especially after she had managed to convince Dani to go to the top of the small castle tower with her. Getting a better look at the small town below them.

She hadn’t been able to keep herself from smiling at the look of awe on Dani’s face.

When she had first taken her to Castle Hill, she hadn’t expected Dani to be as impresses as she was with the small location, in reality, she had just needed some air to clear her head of all the flirty comments.

Being in such close proximity to Dani was already starting to cloud her mind.

The fresh air had helped a little, but when she was with Dani, flirting seemed to come to her more naturally than it ever had before.

After their short walk around the grounds of Castle Hill, they had driven back to Jamie’s house in an easy silence, and Jamie found that she liked that there seemed to be no pressure for her to keep the conversation going with Dani.

What she didn’t like, was that once she was back in the confines of her own room, she couldn’t help but think about how she wished she had dragged out the walk or wished that she had taken Dani somewhere else, anything to spend a little more time with the other woman.

It especially didn’t help when she kept receiving teasing texts from her friends throughout the night, all of them talking about Jamie’s crush on the American, making it hard for her to think about anything else.

She knew that the teasing was only going to get worse once her friends met Dani.

Jamie also knew the worst offender was going to be Peter. She was already dreading him meeting Dani.

By the time that Wednesday rolled around, and Dani had only been in her house for five days, Jamie could no longer deny that she had a crush on Dani and a big one at that. The more time she spent with the other woman, the more she began to realise there was so much more to her than just her looks.

Dani was smart, kind, funny, everything Jamie had ever wanted in a potential partner, and here she was, not being able to do anything about it, all because she had made that stupid promise to her dad.

That, and she had no idea if Dani was even remotely interested in women or not.

It felt odd to her that she had such a big crush on someone that she had only known a matter of days, someone that she only knew the very basic bits of information about, but that didn’t change the fact that she had never quite had a crush like this one before.

Seeing how Dani was with her younger brother and father only fuelled those feelings.

It wasn’t often that people had nice things to say about her family, it also wasn’t often that people were nice to her family in general, with the obvious exceptions being her three best friends… and Peter… sometimes.

While he might not be the best person with her, he had never shown anything but kindness towards her father and Mikey, and that was something she appreciated about him, though she would never admit that to Peter.

But Dani had been warm and polite to all of them, answering Mikey’s endless questions, helping her and her dad out while making dinner or washing the dishes, there were some moments where Jamie would catch herself wondering if it was possible for someone to actually be as nice as Dani.

Dani’s friendliness and easy-going nature had been something that Jamie had definitely not been used to in her life. She just hoped that Dani would stay that way when she inevitably heard all the rumours about the Taylor family when she arrived at Horsforth Trinity and All Saints.

Jamie knew how easy it was for people to fall into step with a large crowd. She knew it could be so easy for Dani to get sept in with the popular crowd and start believing the rumours and some of the lies.

Or worse still, she hoped it wouldn’t have a negative impact on Dani or her experience in England, after all, she’d be heavily associated with Jamie through living with her, and Jamie couldn’t stand the thought of anyone being mean to someone who seemed as genuinely nice as Dani.

The closer it got to Monday morning, the more Jamie began to dread going back to school, especially when Mikey and Dani would be joining her, she had learned how to handle herself at school, she’d had years of practice from being bullied by the other kids and from her older brother, Denny.

But Mikey wasn’t the same as she was, he was softer than her and their older brother, she had no idea how he was going to handle all the things said about them as a family, and Dani, well Dani just had no idea what she was getting herself into.

Being friends with Jamie would surely start her off on the wrong foot.

Of course, Dani did have her accent on her side, and the fact that she was drop-dead gorgeous, she knew those things would definitely work in Dani’s favour. She just hoped they were enough for her not to get swept up in the negativity that came with living in the Taylor household.

She had been sitting alone for most of the day, her thoughts running wild with all the possible outcomes of what might happen when they all returned to school on Monday.

Jamie never thought she’d see the day when she would be so worried about how someone else could be viewed simply for knowing her. But with Dani, she just couldn’t help it, for reasons unknown to her.

Jamie knew if any of her friends knew she was thinking this way, that she would never hear the end of it.

The sound of her phone buzzing along her bedside table pulled her from all her negative thoughts, she grabbed her phone sighing heavily.

**From Rebecca: Hey you!! My parents have gone to Ireland for a few days for their anniversary and I was thinking of having a movie night and just a couple of drinks tonight if you’re interested…**

Just as she was about to reply another message from Rebecca appeared on her screen.

**From Rebecca: … you could also bring Dani… if she wants to come… would be great to meet her before school starts.**

Jamie heaved another sigh and turned her mouth down in thought, while she did want to see her friends and a movie night did sound great, she couldn’t help but wonder if Rebecca was simply doing this just for an excuse to meet Dani.

Jamie figured she should have known as soon as her friends figured out she had a crush on the other woman that they would all be eager to meet her, after all, it wasn’t very often Jamie had an actual crush on anyone.

She thought about her options; she could either go out without Dani, leaving the blonde to the mercy of Mikey and his ten-thousand questions he would surely have for her, or she could take Dani with her, and give her a chance to meet some new people before starting school on Monday.

She quickly typed out a reply before locking her phone and pushing herself up from her bed and headed towards Dani’s room, she knocked on the door gently, “Come in,” Dani called out, her voice soft.

Jamie pushed the door open just a little and poked her head into Dani’s room, “You alright?” She asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Dani replied with a small smile, “Just watching some stuff on Netflix, though I gotta admit, now that I’m in The UK and my IP address has changed Netflix kinda sucks,” She chuckled.

“Yeah, sorry about that, but you’ll soon realise that everything in the UK is slightly worse than it is back in the states,” Jamie replied with a small shrug.

“I don’t think that’s entirely true,” Dani shook her head slowly.

“No?”

“No,” She replied, there was a beat of silence before Dani’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, “Are you just gonna stand there with your head around the door or are you gonna actually come in?” She asked with a small, slightly confused smile.

“Are you that desperate for me to be in your room?” Jamie asked, “You’re a real flirt do you know that?” She joked.

Dani rolled her eyes, and smiled slightly, "I am definitely not desperate," She shrugged her shoulders slightly, "I just thought you might wanna join me... we could watch a movie together. Something tells me you didn't come here just to ask me how I am." 

“Fair enough," Jamie sighed, as she pushed the door open fully and stepped into the small room, "You're right, I didn’t just come here to ask if you were okay,” Jamie admitted with a small smile, “I don’t know if you’ll be interested or not, but one of my friends just invited me over to her house… nothing major, we’re just gonna watch some movies and hang out… she said that you could come too if you wanted to… do you want to?”

“Are you sure?” Dani asked, “I don’t wanna impose on anything like that.”

“Dani it’s totally fine… she literally said I could bring you if you wanted to come… I think they’re all really excited to meet you, and I don’t think they wanna wait until Monday,” She shrugged, “But there is no pressure for you to go… no one will be offended if you turn us down.”

Dani smiled and nodded her head slowly, “Uh no, that sounds great,” She replied, “I’d like to meet a couple more people before I have to start school on Monday… it’d be nice to have a few friendly faces.”

“Okay, I’ll let them know that we’re gonna be heading over soon… I’ll give you a little time to do whatever you need to do before we go.”

Dani narrowed her eyes playfully, “Are you saying that I don’t look good enough to meet your friends?” She asked, a slightly teasing tone edging its way into her voice.

“I am _definitely not_ saying that,” Jamie shook her head slowly, “I just don’t know what you wanna do before meeting new people… but you definitely look good right now,” She allowed her eyes to scan the length of Dani’s body as the blonde sat on her bed, she watched as a small smile tugged at Dani’s lips, there was a beat of silence before Jamie spoke again, “But it’s up to you what you wanna do before we go…” She shrugged her shoulders, “I’m gonna go get ready, which won’t take me long… so whenever you’re ready just knock on my door, yeah?”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, okay,” She replied smiling at the dark-haired woman, Jamie nodded her head once and turned to leave the room, as she opened the door, the sound of Dani’s voice stopped her, “Oh, and Jamie?” She looked over her shoulder, and quirked her eyebrow at the blonde, “Thank you…” She spoke softly, “You already look great too…”

Jamie smiled in return and shrugged her shoulders, “Thanks, Poppins,” She replied, hearing Dani say she looked great gave her an ego boost that she hadn’t really needed, but it had been an ego boost none the less and she would take as many compliments Dani was willing to give her. 

* * *

As soon as the door was closed behind Jamie, Dani shut down her laptop and pushed herself out of bed, rushing around the room to get ready. The unbearable desire to have Jamie compliment her again kicking into her system. It registered somewhere in Dani’s mind that she shouldn’t care this much about what Jamie thought about her looks. She shouldn’t care this much about what anyone other than Eddie thought about her looks.

Dani took a deep breath, as she tried to remove any thoughts of Jamie complimenting her from her mind, reminding herself that tonight wasn’t about getting Jamie’s approval, it wasn’t about getting Jamie’s attention, no matter how badly she wanted it. The thought made her stomach twist slightly, as it always did when she thought about Jamie, or whenever she was around the other woman and all thoughts of Eddie seemed to subside, which happened far more often than Dani wanted to admit.

She grabbed her phone a typed out a message to her boyfriend, letting him know what her plans for the night were, willing herself to think about Eddie instead of the woman in the room next door to hers.

Eddie’s reply came almost instantly.

**From Eddie: Oh… well… have fun. I guess.**

Dani furrowed her eyebrows at his message, before typing out a reply.

**To Eddie: You don’t seem so happy about that… are you okay?**

**From Eddie: No I’m fine… I just didn’t expect you to say you were hanging out with Jamie and her friends so soon… I know I’m not having the same experience here…**

**To Eddie: I’m really sorry you’re having such a different experience to me… do you want to talk about that?**

**From Eddie: I’ll call you tomorrow and talk about it a little more… You go have fun tonight.**

**To Eddie: Are you sure? Because I don’t mind sitting this one out. I am sure there’ll be other nights.**

She hit send, secretly hoping that Eddie would say he was sure, and that she should go out with Jamie and her friends, though, the hope made a wave of guilt wash over her.

**From Eddie: Yes, I am sure… you go out and make some new friends… I love you.**

**To Eddie: I love you too.**

She locked her phone and continued to get ready, applying a light amount of make-up, and spraying on some more perfume, she looked through her clothes to find something better to wear, settling on a burgundy, formfitting, v-neck tee-shirt with long sleeves, and quickly changing out of the oversized tee-shirt she had been wearing to lounge around the house in, choosing to keep her high-waisted skinny jeans on, she tucked her tee into the waistband and took one last look at herself in the mirror. 

She took a deep, somewhat calming breath as she pulled on her high-heeled ankle boots, and readied herself for spending a night with Jamie and her friends. 

She knew she definitely shouldn't be this nervous about spending time with the other woman, and yet, she had no idea how to rid herself of the nerves that coursed through her body whenever Jamie was around. 

She left her room, and headed for Jamie’s door, taking another breath before she knocked on it lightly. The door opened almost instantly, revealing the dark-haired woman, for a moment, Dani felt like all of the air from her lungs had been knocked out of her.

“You look really great,” Dani blurted out, the words tumbling from her mouth before she could even think about stopping them, as her eyes scanned the length of Jamie’s body, and while she was dressed casually, in ripped black jeans, a faded The Smiths shirt, paired with some doc martens and a minimal amount of make-up, Dani was sure that she had never seen anyone look better.

She hated how Jamie could look so utterly stunning so effortlessly.

Jamie looked down at herself, before she looked back at the blonde, quirking an eyebrow at her, “Uh, thanks… but I promise you, Poppins, I don’t have anything on how great you look… not that I ever thought I’d be able to compete with you.”

Dani had never known compliments have such an effect on her as they did when they came from Jamie. The looks the dark-haired woman gave her, paired with the accent, and her smooth voice left Dani feeling breathless every time.

“Thank you,” She replied, her tone sounding slightly more panicked than she had ever wanted or intended it to.

Jamie quirked her eyebrow at Dani and tilted her head to the side, “Are you alright?” She asked, her tone soft.

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, I’m just a little nervous, I guess,” She admitted.

She felt nervous around Jamie a lot, she couldn’t be sure if it was because she was essentially a stranger, if it was her bold nature (that was like nothing Dani had ever known before), or if there was something else, something she had been trying for years to convince herself wasn’t there.

Something she had tried convincing herself for years that she wasn’t. Something she could never be. 

Jamie shook her head slowly, “Look, you have nothing to be nervous about, okay?” She assured her, “I get it, meeting a group of people who all know each other can be daunting, sure… but there’s really not going to be that many people there.”

Dani smiled slightly, feeling appreciative of Jamie and her demeanour and how quickly she could change from being bold, and complimentary, to being soft and reassuring, “No?” She asked.

Jamie shook her head again, “No, I hate to break this to you, but you haven’t exactly been paired up little miss popularity,” She admitted with a small chuckle, “I have three friends… and one of them has a boyfriend… so he’s there too.”

Dani quirked her eyebrow, “You’re not a fan of your friend’s boyfriend?” She asked, within her small group of friends back home, most of them were in relationships, and Dani could honestly say she liked all of her friends’ boyfriends, and she could only assume they all liked Eddie too.

She couldn’t imagine being in a group of friends with someone she didn’t like, and she wondered, if all of Jamie’s friends felt this way about the boyfriend in question, or if it was just Jamie.

Jamie shook her head slowly, “No. Not even a little bit… but she loves him, so we all tolerate him because we all love Rebecca.”

“So, you all hate him?”

Jamie turned her mouth down in thought, “I don’t know if hate is the right word, he has some good qualities, I guess,” She shrugged, “I mean, he can be funny… and he’s great with Mikey, which I appreciate because a lot of people aren’t… but… that’s about it.”

“You’ve said that thing about Mikey twice now… is there a reason people aren’t okay with him?” Dani asked, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. She couldn’t understand how anyone could have an issue with the young boy.

There was a beat of silence before Jamie spoke again, “Maybe we can talk about that some other time?”

“Oh, yeah,” Dani nodded, “I didn’t mean to cross a line, I’m sorry if I did.”

“You haven’t, don’t worry… Just no point in getting into it right now… especially not when you look that good, be a shame to waste it…”

The change in her demeanour came as naturally as it always did, going from serious straight back to flirting and being complimentary. She’d admit, she missed the days when Eddie would flirt with her like this. While he never failed to compliment her, the flirty side to the relationship seemed long over.

“I mean, you are ready to go, right?” Jamie asked, her voice pulling Dani from her musings.

“Oh, yeah, sorry.”

“No need to apologise,” Jamie smiled, “Just making sure,” She admitted as she walked past Dani and headed for the stairs, Dani stayed close to Jamie as they made their way to the living room, where Dennis lay sprawled out on the sofa.

As the living room door closed, he pushed himself up slightly to see the two young women standing in the living room, he looked between them before his eyes landed on Jamie, “Going somewhere?” He asked.

“Yeah, I was just coming to let you know that we’re going to Rebecca’s, I don’t know what time we’ll be back, but I don’t think it’ll be too late.”

“You’re both going?” He asked, looking between them once more, his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

“Yeah, Rebecca invited us both over, her parents are away somewhere on some sort of anniversary trip or something,” She explained, “She didn’t wanna be in the house alone so…”

“Okay,” He replied watching his daughter carefully as she backed up to the living room door, “I hope you’re not gonna be drinking… I don’t want either of you two coming home pissed as farts, waking me and Mikey up,” He pointed at Jamie, his warning clearly more for her than it was for Dani.

“Well, I mean, there might be some drinking… maybe,” Jamie admitted, her tone sounding all too casual about the prospect of them spending the night drinking in her friend’s house.

“And how are you getting there and back?”

“We’ll walk… Rebecca only lives a fifteen-minute walk away, I am sure that we can handle that.”

Dennis sighed, “I am not going to be able to rest until I know you’re both back here safe,” He ran his hands over his face before looking at Jamie once more, “Try not to be too late, yeah?”

Jamie nodded her head before saluting the older man, “Yes sir,” She replied.

“I’ll see you when you get home… go have fun.”

Jamie smiled, “I am sure we will see ya later, Dad,” She said before heading out of the house, Dani gave the older man a quiet goodbye before following Jamie. 

“Pissed as farts,” Dani commented as she and Jamie made their way down the street, “That’s one that I have never heard before,” She admitted with a small laugh, “I don't know how I feel about it though, I'll admit." 

“Well, that is just one of the many ways us Brits like to say getting drunk,” Jamie explained with a small shrug, “It's not the best. I'll be honest, but we have a lot of phrases for it… too many to actually go through, but I’ll teach you some before the end of the year and maybe you can take them back home with you.”

“You can teach me anything you want,” Dani replied with a small smirk, taking on the same tone of voice that Jamie had used on her that week when she had said the self-same thing to Dani.

Jamie widened her eyes slightly, before a smile slowly spread across her face, “Oh, I am definitely taking you up on that offer some time, Poppins.”

She felt her stomach twist slightly, though she couldn’t be sure whether it was the flirty tone Jamie used or the fact that she was flirting with someone she most definitely should not have been flirting with, for more reasons than one.

* * *

The walk to Rebecca’s house had been a pleasant one, filled with easy conversation as Jamie gave Dani a brief description of each of her friends, trying her hardest to give the blonde a little heads up before she had to meet them all.

Of course, her description of Peter had been vague and had been more of a thinly veiled warning than anything else. She could only imagine the things Peter would say to Dani, and the more she thought about Dani having to spend time with Peter, the more she regretted accepting Rebecca’s invite on behalf of both of them.

As Jamie spoke, Dani nodded her head, and asked questions about her friends, trying to gain more information about all of them, and as best she could, Jamie had answered all of Dani’s queries.

“Are you ready then?” Jamie asked coming to a stop just outside of Rebecca’s house, the blonde turned her head slowly, and nodded her head mechanically, “Are you sure?” She asked, quirking an eyebrow at the other girl, “Because you don’t seem it.”

“No, I am, I was just… do all houses in England look like this?” Dani asked, her eyebrows furrowing slightly, pointing at the houses in front of them, “Or just the houses here?”

Jamie chuckled and nodded her head, “Uh, yeah, pretty much… do they not all look the same where you’re from?”

Dani shook her head, “That depends, there are some cookie-cutter neighbourhoods, but a lot of the time people will have different coloured houses to each other, rather than just the bricks you guys have some times you'll get different styled houses too..." She admitted with a shrug, “Do you all have a neighbour connected to you?”

“Not everyone… you can get detached houses, just not many people can afford one round ‘ere,” Jamie shrugged, “So most of us live in semi-detached houses, like me and Rebecca… so with houses like that, you have a neighbour joined onto your house, and one not joined on,” Jamie explained pointing to Rebecca’s house, and the two neighbouring houses, “But obviously, the house not joined onto Rebecca’s has a neighbour joined on to the other side.”

“Oh,” Dani replied, “So are all houses like that?”

“No, as I said, you can have a detached house, and you’ll still have neighbours they just won’t be joined on, or you can get terrace houses, where you have a neighbour joined on at either side of your house… well unless you’re the house at the end or the start of the street, then it’s just the one neighbour attached to your house… you don’t have adjoining neighbours back home?”

Dani shook her head again, “No… not unless you live in a duplex or something like that,” She explained, “Where I live all the houses are detached and the yards are _huge_ so, I was just curious, streets look different here… I mean, my friend in Birmingham sent me a picture of the street they’re on and it looked similar… but I just wondered if they _all_ look like this.”

“Unfortunately, yes, they do or the vast majority do anyway… England is a painfully boring place, especially Yorkshire, now I can’t speak for the Midlands, I’ve never been there so your friend would be able to tell you more about that… but I can speak for West Yorkshire.”

“Yorkshuh,” Dani mimicked with a chuckle, “Have I been saying that wrong too?”

“Yeah, a little bit,” Jamie nodded, “But I thought it was cute, so I wasn’t going to correct you,” She admitted casually, “Are you ready to go in now… or do you wanna talk about English real estate some more?” She asked with a smirk.

“No,” Dani replied, “We can go inside.”

“Okay,” Jamie said as she pushed the small garden gate open and made her way up the driveway with Dani close behind her, she stopped by the front door and gave Dani a small reassuring smile, before she knocked on the door, no more than thirty seconds later, the door opened, to reveal a pretty girl with dark curly hair, and a beaming smile. 

“Hey, come on in,” She chimed, her accent so different to what Dani had been expecting of someone who lived in the same city as Jamie, she stepped to the side as Dani and Jamie entered the house before closing and locking the door behind them, “Honestly, I’m surprised you got here when you did, I expected you two to be the last people to show up… Jamie’s usually late to everything.”

Jamie rolled her eyes but smiled all the same, “Dani, this is Rebecca,” She introduced them, pointing at each of the women respectively, “Rebecca has been my best friend since, like, birth,” She explained, “Rebecca this is Dani.”

“It’s great to meet you, welcome to England, did you have a good flight?” She asked, her voice soft and her tone just as genuine as her smile.

“It's great to meet you too,” Dani replied with a smile of her own, “And yeah it was great, thank you, long, but it was good… we hit a rough patch of turbulence at one point, but it only lasted like, ten minutes.”

“I don’t know how you did it,” Rebecca shook her head slowly, “I hate flying, I can hardly even handle short flights to places like Spain and France,” She admitted, her smile never faltering as she spoke.

Dani smiled and shrugged her shoulders, “Honestly, I just wanted to get out of Minnesota, I’d have swum if I had to,” She joked, giving a slightly nervous chuckle.

“Well, I know that feeling,” Rebecca nodded her head, “I can’t stand England, but I doubt I’ll ever do much traveling unless it’s a cruise or driving around from place to place,” She shrugged, “But enough about that, I’m gonna get some snacks sorted out… Peter is in the living room trying to pick a film, you guys can just go right in, I’ll be with you in a few minutes.”

Jamie nodded her head slowly before leading Dani through the narrow hallway and into the living room to see Peter sitting on the couch, he looked over his shoulder when he heard the living room door close. His blue eyes widened slightly when they landed on Dani, he quickly pushing himself up from the couch, and walked to where the two women were standing, “Hi,” He greeted them and for the second time that night, Dani was met with an accent that she hadn’t been expecting, she shifted slightly, under his gaze as his eyes scanned the length of her body.

“Dani this is Peter… Peter, this is Dani,” Jamie said, sounding far more uninterested than she had when introducing her to Rebecca just moments before.

A slow smirked crossed Peter’s face as he looked from Dani to Jamie, and then back to Dani again, “How’re you doing?” He asked, his accent thick. 

“I’m fine thanks, how’re you?” Dani asked.

“Fine thanks,” Peter replied, mimicking her accent, and if she was being honest, doing a far better job with imitating her than she had with imitating Jamie, “Are you enjoying England so far?”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah… or I’m enjoying what little I’ve seen of it,” She explained with a small shrug, “I really haven’t been here that long.”

“Yeah, well even when you have been, you’ll realise there really isn’t that much to do here,” Peter shrugged, “I know I hate it… but I am sure that Jamie is showing you a good time, yeah?” He asked, a slightly suggestive tone taking over his voice.

“Uh, I guess,” Dani replied nodding her head slowly, “I mean, we haven’t done much, but yeah so far she’s been great.”

“I am sure she has,” He nodded his head, a small smile spreading across his face, “She usually is great with all the girls.”

Dani opened her mouth to say something before Jamie cut her off, “You can just ignore Peter,” She informed Dani casually, “That’s what we all do,” She turned her head to face Dani, giving her a small smile, though, unlike all the other times Jamie had smiled at her, this one didn’t quite meet her eyes.

Leaving Dani wondering, just how bad Peter could be, if Jamie’s demeanour had changed completely from one small comment.

* * *

Dani and Jamie had only been at Rebecca’s house for about twenty minutes when Hannah and Owen walked through the door, much to Jamie’s relief, at least now, she would have an excuse not to talk to Peter. Jamie had given Dani a quick introduction to her remaining two friends conversation had flowed just as easy as Jamie had hoped it had, with Dani answering another tirade of questions, though this time, they were all about the blonde rather than questions about Dani’s home country.

Though those questions hadn’t lasted too long before Hannah had found the perfect way into a conversation that Jamie would rather not be having, Hannah had piggybacked off of one of Dani’s answers about the exchange program to strike up a conversation about school.

The movie seemed to have been forgotten and had been playing in the background for the last fifteen minutes, none of them even paying attention to what was happening on the screen. 

“Are you looking forward to starting school in England on Monday?” Hannah asked, her smile warm and welcoming as she waited for the blonde’s response.

“Yeah, I think so,” Dani replied nodding her head slowly, “I mean… I’m a little nervous,” She admitted, “I’ve been around the same group of people all my life and now I am in a new school in a completely different country, and I have no idea what to expect… but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little excited.”

“You’re excited to go back to school?” Jamie asked her green eyes widening slightly.

“Yes and no,” Dani replied before taking a sip of her drink, “I’m excited to fully start the program and see what the schooling system is like here… but I’m not excited to actually be in school again.”

Peter scoffed and shook his head, “You’re gonna be really disappointed, the schooling system in England is shite,” He replied with a shrug, “Like, really shite…”

“I can’t see it being that bad… right… have I made a really big mistake?” Dani asked, looking between the five friends.

Hannah shook her head slowly, “While the schooling system here isn’t the best, you’ll be fine, Horsforth is actually an okay school… you will be fine trust me,” She assured her, her bright smile never faltering as she spoke to the other woman.

Rebecca nodded her head in agreement, “You honestly have nothing to worry about… I am sure that between the five of us, we can help you with anything you need help with… you have five new friends going into this.”

Jamie had never been worried about Hannah, Owen, and Rebecca including Dani in their small circle. Her fears had all involved Peter and the things he would tell the blonde. But so far, everything seemed to be going as well as it possibly could be, and Jamie was thankful that the tall, Scottish man hadn’t had a chance to talk to Dani alone yet.

“What A-Levels have you taken?” Owen asked, “Maybe we can give you a heads up on what to expect from those classes or even what to expect from the teachers.”

“I chose, history, math, biology, English literature, and theatre studies,” Dani replied with a small smile, “It would actually be great if any of you could help me out with any of those.”

“Ew, why did you pick those?” Jamie asked, the words falling from her mouth before she had even been able to stop them, she hadn’t meant to sound so judgemental of Dani’s chosen subjects, but that’s how she had sounded all the same.

Dani chuckled at the question, and shook her head slowly, if the blonde was offended she definitely didn’t show it.

“Well, I was told I had to pick five classes, and I knew for four of them I wanted stuff that would help me later in life, and with me wanting to be a teacher, I thought that math, history, English, and biology would help me with that… theatre studies was kind of a throw-away thing,” She admitted, “I needed something to fill that fifth spot and I thought with all the others being academic I might as well have some fun with it, right?”

Rebecca nodded her head, “Theatre is great, I do that and it’s my favourite, I also do History… so hopefully you’ll be in the same classes as me… for theatre studies, there are only two teachers anyway so it’s fifty, fifty for that, but with history, there’s a lot of teachers.”

“You guys don’t have set teachers for set grades like you don't have teachers specifically for A-Level History?” Dani asked.

Jamie shook her head, “Nope, all teachers will have classes that have an age range from year 7 right up to the last year of sixth form, which is also known as year 13… but teachers only have four to five classes a day, so there’ll be some days you’ll have free periods instead of going to a class because the teacher you usually have will have a class they didn’t have earlier in the week because they were teaching A-Level.”

“Oh,” Dani replied, “That’s pretty different to how my school worked back home,” She furrowed her eyebrows slightly, “So even though we’ve taken the same A-Level classes, we might not have classes together at all?”

Rebecca nodded her head slowly, “Unfortunately not, but we’ll all have the same break times… we have a morning break after out first two classes, then we have another class, and then we have a dinner break, and then we have our final two classes of the day and then we go home... or on the days you'll have a free period, you might have a free period before you have dinner or you might start the day with a free period, and you get the gist, I'm sure?." 

Dani nodded her head slowly, "Yes, I do, and dinner is lunch, right?" She asked. 

“Yeah," Jamie nodded her head, "Free periods and breaks are the best time to see friends if you have the same free period as someone else, you're supposed to use them for studying and finishing homework but like, no one does... I haven’t had a lesson with any of these guys since year 11, so if Hanah and I have the same free period, we're gonna use it to spend time talking,” Jamie said, “But who knows, you might be put in those classes with Rebecca, and if you’re _really_ lucky, you might even be in biology with me,” She smiled.

Jamie couldn’t even begin to verbalise how much she hoped that Dani would be placed in the same biology class as her.

“You took biology?” Dani asked, “I don’t know why but I didn’t expect that.”

Jamie shrugged her shoulders, “Well much you like you said, you have to pick classes and there wasn’t really much I wanted to do… though I will admit, I can’t believe you’ve actually taken 5 A Levels.”

“Meaning?”

“You only need to don't actually need 5 A-Levels to get into uni, I mean, you can do five if you really want to, but most people drop one of their classes after the first year of sixth form… in the first year of sixth form, or an English college, you do 5 AS Levels, and then in your final year you’d do 4 A Levels… most universities will accept you with only three or four A Levels… so I dropped one of my classes at the end of last year… didn’t feel like stressing myself out with five,” She admitted.

“So, I’m doing more work than I need to be?” Dani asked.

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah seems that way, mate,” She gave her a small smile, “But don’t worry about it, I’m sure you’ll be fine, and you won’t be the only one doing it… I just couldn’t be arsed doing five and I also knew I wouldn’t be able to cope doing five… so I dropped one… which my dad was pretty pissed at,” She admitted with a small shrug.

“I am sure you’ll be fine,” Hannah smiled, “Rebecca and I are doing five too… some call us overachievers… and by some, I mean Jamie and Peter,” She glanced at Jamie who nodded her head slowly.

“Yeah, I do call ‘em that,” Jamie admitted.

“Are you gonna call me an overachiever too?” Dani asked.

Jamie shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, I’ll wait to see what grades you get before making any decision on how much you achieve,” She replied, “Don’t wanna make you too big-headed, and then it turns out you fail everything.”

Dani chuckled and shook her head, "No we wouldn't want that," She joked, "It's much better for me to just fail things with a deflated ego." 

"Yeah, see you get it," Jamie nodded, taking on the same teasing tone Dani had used. 

* * *

They’d been at Rebecca’s for around three hours, and so far, Dani liked all of Jamie’s friends, well, all of them except one. There was something, and she wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but there was something that she didn’t like about Peter.

Perhaps it was the way he had looked at her when she had first met him or the small comments he had made through the night, always using that same suggestive tone whenever he talked about herself and Jamie together.

When that had all been together in a group, he had watched her carefully, his eyes seemingly following her every movement, even if Rebecca was around.

Though he had made no real effort to get to know her. He had mimicking her accent or had made jabs at America’s expense any time he opened his mouth, though, she wasn’t too offended by either of those things, he’d shown the same attitude towards Jamie’s accent and England. 

To Dani, it appeared, that Peter cared about one thing, and one thing alone: himself.

While Hannah, Owen, and Rebecca had all been interested in just about anything she had to say, Peter couldn’t have cared less, so much so, that it had come as a rather big surprise when Peter had approached her in the kitchen when she had been helping herself to one of the many drinks Rebecca had supplied for everyone the night with the sentiment of _make yourself at home._

“God, Jamie was _so_ right about you,” Peter commented, coming to stand beside her, his Scottish drawl pulling her attention away from what she was doing, she looked up at the tall man and gave him a questioning look, “I thought that she might have been exaggerating at first, but looking at you?” He shook his head slowly, his eyes scanning the length of her body.

“Jamie said something about me?” Dani asked, her heart pounding in her chest. The thought of Jamie talking about her made her feel a mixture of excitement and panic, she had no idea what Jamie could have said about her, she had no idea if they had been positive or negative, all she knew was that Peter thought whatever Jamie had said was right.

Peter nodded his head before grabbing a bottle of beer, “Yeah, she’s said a few things.”

“Can you tell me?”

Again, he nodded his head, “She said that she thinks you have a really cute accent,” He informed her, “That and that you’re really hot,” He smiled, “Both of those statements are very true… in fact, I think she might have been downplaying just how hot you are… I know that in my opinion I’d have said stunning.”

“Don’t you have a girlfriend?” Dani asked, trying her hardest not to focus on what Jamie had said about her, she knew, if she thought about it for too long, her thoughts would surely get the better of her.

Peter shrugged, “Nah, I have a Rebecca,” He replied, his tone remaining casual, “Besides, in football, the other team has a goalkeeper, but you can still score,” He smirked and tilted his head to the side.

“Huh?”

“What I am trying to say is… that doesn’t bother me if it doesn’t bother you.”

“Well, Jamie said that Rebecca was your girlfriend… and it really does bother me… so…” Dani shrugged, she knew she couldn’t judge Peter too hard, after all, hadn’t she been flirting with Jamie while she herself had a boyfriend.

“So, you’re saying, if I didn’t have a girlfriend… it could happen?”

Dani shook her head slowly, “No, no I _never_ said that,” She replied, “Because it would still be a no… uh, you’re just, not my type,” She admitted with a shrug.

“And what exactly is your type?”

Now that the question had been asked, she didn’t have any real idea of what she should say, all she knew was that as good looking as he was, Peter was definitely not her type. Someone like Jamie, maybe…

…She quickly shook the thought from her mind and pictured the man sitting in Birmingham, the man who had traveled halfway across the world to be closer to her, all because she wanted to have some experience outside of that small Minnesotan town.

“I guess I like dark hair,” She shrugged, trying her best to think of Eddie, and everything he was that had made her like him so much, “And people who are a little quieter and more reserved… oh… and people who don’t shamelessly hit on other women when they have girlfriends… that… that’s my type,” She gave him a tight-lipped smile before walking away from him and heading back to the living room to re-join the others, putting as much space between herself and Peter as she possibly could, even if only for a short moment.

* * *

“Dani seems great,” Rebecca chimed, almost the second Dani was out of sight, Jamie hadn’t been expecting the comment, she had known that Rebecca would give her opinion on the blonde sooner or later, Jamie had just been expecting it in the form of a text later that night.

Jamie nodded her head slowly, watching as Peter rolled his eyes and pushed himself up from his spot besides Rebecca, he’d shown little interest in the blonde all night, always talking more about himself, or simply mocking her accent, or making digs about America.

She hoped that he would be just as disinterested in Dani now.

She dreaded to think the things he would say to her if they were alone, and she hoped against everything else, that Peter had excused himself to use the bathroom, rather than leaving the room to get Dani alone.

“Uh, yeah,” Jamie replied pulling her attention away from Peter as he walked out of the living room, “Yeah, she’s really nice,” She admitted, a smile pulling at her lips as she thought about Dani, at this point, she was powerless to stop the smiles whenever she spoke to or about the blonde, “I never thought I’d like her as much as I do,” She divulged, “We actually get along really well so far…”

“But?” Hannah prompted, “Sorry it just felt like there was a but coming,” She admitted.

Jamie sighed before speaking again, “But I am worried about what’s going to happen on Monday… I’m not exactly the most popular person in that school, and I worry that being associated with me is going to drag Dani and Mikey down… that or I’m worried that both of them will fall for the bullshit and that Mikey will start treating me the way Denny did and that Dani is going to be just like everyone else at school…”

It was the first time she had expressed her worries out loud to her friends, it was rare she would have serious conversations with anyone, but Hannah, Owen, and Rebecca knew her too well, she never had to say there was something on her mind because they all knew when there was.

Lying around them was futile, they always saw through her lies sooner or later.

She knew the best way to handle this, was to be as honest as possible.

The last time they’d had a conversation of this nature, Jamie had been worried that Dani was going to be a terrible person, the blonde woman certainly hadn’t been what she was expecting. Jamie just hoped that Dani exceeded expectations again once they got to school and that she wouldn’t fall into step with everyone else.

* * *

The rest of the night went off without a hitch, Dani had quickly fallen into place with her friends, and had seemed genuinely interested in everything they had to say, just as they had all seemed interested in Dani’s life.

Hannah and Owen had left first, leaving the two of them with Rebecca and Peter, though it wasn’t long before Jamie made an excuse for them to leave, lying to Rebecca, and telling the other woman that her dad was waiting up for them for when they go home.

They left Rebecca’s house around midnight, and made their way through the street, “Is it always this quiet?” Dani asked.

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, until all the uni students move into their accommodation,” She explained, “Leeds has three universities, one is here in Horsforth, and two are in the city center… the accommodation for the university in Horsforth isn’t far away at all… so when they all move into their flats or whatever, it can get pretty rowdy especially after they’ve all been out on student night or just when they’ve been out on a weekend." 

“So, this is a university town?”

Jamie nodded her head once more, “I know it doesn’t look like one, because it’s just like a quiet little suburb, but yeah, I’ve been to a few of the uni parties in the past… they’re really easy to crash them when you live so close…” She admitted, glancing at Dani to see the blonde’s reaction.

Dani smiled and turned her head to face her, “Were they any good?”

“Some were alright,” Jamie admitted, “Some were absolutely terrible,” She chuckled, “I wouldn’t recommend going to a lot of them… although I think you’d be _very_ popular if you went to one.”

“Why’s that… because I’m hot and have a cute accent?” Dani asked, and Jamie didn’t have to look at her to know she was smiling, she stopped in her tracks, and turned to face Dani, to see the blonde smirking, “A little birdy told me you thought those things about me,” She admitted with a shrug.

Jamie already knew who it was, but she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Let me guess… it was a Scottish bird?” She asked, “Also commonly known as a Lesser-Spotted-Scottish-Twat?”

Dani chuckled and nodded her head, “Yeah, the really tall ones,” There was a beat of silence before Dani spoke again, “Is it true?” She asked.

Jamie sighed and nodded her head slowly, “Well, I guess there’s no point in denying it since you’ve already been told,” She admitted, “Yeah… I do think those things about you…” She admitted, “But uh, you already knew the thing about your accent…” She chuckled, feeling a slight tension rising between them, “And you do have a mirror, so don’t pretend like you don’t know how fit you are,” She began to walk up the street once more.

“Fit?” Dani asked, “What does that have to do with anything?” She furrowed her eyebrows slightly.

“Fit means hot,” Jamie explained, “Here if someone calls you fit, they just mean hot.”

“Seems like I have a hell of a lot to learn while I’m here,” Dani commented, falling into step beside Jamie once more, there was a beat of silence before she spoke again, “Are you gonna teach me about stuff like that too?” She asked with a small smile.

Jamie nodded her head slightly, “Well you did say I could teach you _anything_ I wanted…” She replied, watching Dani closely, “And trust me, Poppins, there are _so many_ things I wanna teach you…” She admitted.

“I’m always open to learning new things,” The small smile that crossed Dani’s face made her heart increase just slightly.

Jamie knew that if Dani kept looking at her, and talking to her like that, keeping her promise to her dad was going to be an almost impossible task. But then again, she figured, some promises, were okay to break, and her promise to her dad, just might be one of them. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, I apologise for any mistakes in this chapter about how American neighbourhoods look, I could only use the internet, and what I have seen in movies and TV shows, also, I have some minor knowledge from conversations I have had with Shananigans402 in the past. So if anything is wrong or seems wrong I am VERY SORRY.


	8. Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always a HUGE thank you to everyone who has interacted with this fic, be it comments, kudos, bookmarks, or subscriptions it all means so much to me and I am so happy that you're enjoying this fic so far!!
> 
> A small fact about this chapter, the flashback scene between Dani and Edmund is actually how I met my oldest friend we've been friends since our very first day of nursery/kindergarten when she walked up to me and asked me if I wanted to paint with her. We have been friends ever since (much like Dani in this chapter I also didn't care about walking away from my mother and my first day of school and she has never let me live it down, reminding me all the time that I genuinely didn't care while all my other siblings had cared a lot about our mum leaving them at school)

**Seven**

_With her school bag in hand, wearing her new dress, with white, frilly ankle socks, her new shoes, and her blonde hair pulled into two neat pigtails, Danielle Clayton looked every bit as ready to start her first day of Kindergarten as she felt._ _While her mother had looked at her all morning with teary eyes (even though she was only four years old she was sure that her mother’s tears were false), she didn’t have a care in the world, as excitement coursed through her tiny body._

_She couldn’t wait to walk through those doors and meet lots of new people, growing up an only child had been quite lonely for Dani those past four years, and with her father working a lot, and her mother having very little to no patience at all, she was often left to make her own entertainment._

_Which would usually result in her mother berating her for making too much noise or too much mess, on the occasions that Dani did make a mess of herself, spilling paint or food on her clothes, or playing out in the yard and getting covered in mud, her mother would rush her upstairs, lecturing her all the way as she made her get cleaned and change her clothes, no matter how little dirt might have been on her._

_Dani knew all too well that if she were to play at home, she had to do so quietly and neatly, which would often leave her feeling bored and running out of things to do. But at school, she knew that there were going to be plenty of people for her to make friends with and she could hardly wait._ _Her anticipation was building inside of her as the two of them walked into school the school building, the first thing that hit Dani was_ _the sound of screaming, laughing, and crying children; the laughing made sense to her, but she couldn’t understand why some of the other children seemed to be so sad at the prospect of spending the day away from their parents._

 _She watched them all with curious eyes, as one little boy clung to his mother’s legs, all but begging her not to leave him, while one little girl was throwing a temper tantrum kicking and screaming as her mother tried to leave her, telling her in a soothing voice that she would be back to pick her up later._ _It all seemed odd to Dani, she certainly didn’t feel the same way they seemed to, as she looked around the room once more, her eyes fell onto a small boy, with black, curly hair and glasses._

_She watched as he seemed to fidget nervously, looking around the room, and taking everything in the same way that she was, as he locked eyes with her, she gave him a small wave and looked at the older woman he was standing next to, who gave her a soft smile, and seemed to encourage the young boy forwards, giving him a gently nudge in Dani’s direction._

_He headed towards her, dragging his feet slightly, and stretching the sleeves of his sweater over his hands, “Hi, I’m Edmund_ ,” _He greeted her, his smile as big and wide on his face as his glasses were, “What’s your name?”_

_Dani tried her hardest to match his smile, though she was sure she couldn’t have even if her face has split in two, “I’m Danielle,” She replied, holding her tiny hand out to him, the way she had seen people do it on TV. People always shook hands when greeting someone new. Dani was sure this was the right way to do things._

_He took her hand in his and shook it once, “Nice to meet you,” He beamed, “Do you want to paint with me?”_

_Dani nodded her head quickly before she gave her mom an absent-minded smile and a quick goodbye before she ran after the dark-haired, bespectacled boy that she was sure was going to be her new best friend._

* * *

Dani had never experienced a first day back school without Edmund, not once. In fact, there were many things in her life that she had never experienced without Edmund by her side; ever since their first day of Kindergarten he had been a constant fixture in her life, had always there to support her and hold her hand no matter what life threw at her. In her short life, she had definitely had a lot thrown at her and most of it was made a lot more bearable thanks to Eddie. 

Yet, here she was, about to embark on the biggest journey of her life so far; starting a new school, in a completely different country, as part of a foreign exchange program, and she was going it alone- in theory, at least- she knew that Edmund was going through the exact same thing she was two hours away, in Birmingham, but still, she had never had to go through something like this without someone by her side, and as much as she wanted freedom and independence, she wasn’t afraid to admit how daunting this whole thing felt now it was happening.

She knew that she had Jamie, and Jamie’s four friends to show her the ropes and to help her with _anything_ and while she knew she had five people she could talk to at school, she couldn’t help but notice the slight sting of loneliness, after all, as welcoming as they had been with her, she was still an outsider. She pulled on her navy-blue cardigan and took a look at herself in the mirror, screwing up her face slightly at her own reflection; she hated it. She hated everything about it; the white fitted shirt, the almost too short black pencil skirt, the black pantyhose, and the heeled shoes that added all of three inches to her height.

She ran her hands through her hair and sighed, figuring that at least she wouldn’t be alone in looking ridiculous, especially not if all the other girls at school were dressed the same way she was, she quickly grabbed her phone and replied to the good morning text she had received from her mother, before taking a picture of herself and send it to the older woman as she had asked her to. Dani didn't know why her mother was pretending to care so much about her first day at school in England, she hadn't cared many other years. 

Dani quickly took another picture of herself wearing a slightly forced and goofy smile for added effect, with the caption, **what the hell am I wearing** and sent it to everyone in her Snapchat friends list, knowing a few of her friends back home would get a good laugh at her when they woke up and saw the picture. As always, Eddie’s response came almost instantly, and Dani couldn’t help but wonder if he just sat around waiting all day for her to message or call him; after all, he always seemed too quick with his replies or answering a call from her. The thought of Eddie sitting around and waiting for her all day made her stomach twist with guilt.

While she loved him, she knew that she hadn’t been doing the same; spending most of her days with Mikey and Jamie, or simply watching a movie with the dark-haired woman, there were some days, that Eddie barely crossed her mind at all, and the more she focused on that fact, the guiltier she felt. But, whenever Jamie was around, it was hard for her to focus on much else at all.

She took a deep breath, hoping to clear her head before opening her message from Eddie, and while she had been expecting a picture in return, all she has was a simple one-line response.

**I like it… that colour looks really good on you… I have to wear a jacket.**

Dani ignored his complement, with only one thing on her mind: seeing Eddie in his school’s uniform. She could hardly imagine seeing Eddie in a smart jacket, but she knew it was something she wanted to see.

**OMG SHOW ME?!**

Again, his response came soon after she had sent her message, there he was in the picture wearing black pants, a white shirt with a maroon and white striped tie, and a black blazer with the school’s emblem on it. His face looked rather less enthusiastic than her own had in the picture she’d sent him, and she wondered, if Eddie had been handed a bad lot, or if he was simply failing to make the most of the opportunity he had been granted.

She took a picture of herself, this time wearing a genuine smile, with the caption **Cute** in the hopes of cheering Eddie up.

This time, his response came in the form of another picture, with a small smile on his face, with the caption **Thanks. But I’ve got nothing on you.**

She gave a slight smile at the remark, though she realised that, when Eddie said it, it didn’t seem to hold the same weight it had when Jamie had said the same thing to her. She typed out a quick response, thanking him, and telling him that she hoped he had a good day, that she would text him later when she got the chance, and as always, that she loved him.

He sent her a reply, thanking her, and telling the same things, though Dani knew already that Eddie would be texting her most of the day, even if it came with risks of having his phone confiscated. Since arriving in England and being separated by what Dani considered a marginal distance, Eddie had been far clingier than she had ever imagined he would be. She locked her phone, before putting it in her bag and sighed as she looked at herself in the mirror again.

The sound of gentle, rhythmic knocking on the door pulled her attention away from her reflection, and when she heard the soft voice on the other side of the door, she couldn’t keep herself from smiling, “Are ya decent?” Jamie asked. Dani took a deep breath, trying to calm herself as nervous excitement pulsed through every vein in her body.

“Yeah, you can come in,” Dani called back, loosening her tie just slightly, and unbuttoning the top to buttons on her shirt. Having a tie around her neck, and a shirt fastened all the way to the top had done little to help her claustrophobia; she had no idea how she was going to wear this uniform for the rest of the year when she could hardly handle an hour that morning and had no idea how someone like Jamie had managed to wear a uniform like this for the last few years. 

She already missed the freedom of wearing whatever she wanted for school, within reason, of course, her school had a fairly strict dress code- which had been there mainly for the girls- but still, following the rules and guidelines while still being able to wear something you felt comfortable in, was far better than having to wear this. She turned around when she heard the door opening slowly, and was greeted by Jamie staring at her wide-eyed, “Oh… wow,” She chuckled, closing the door behind her as she stepped into the room.

“What?” Dani asked, looking down at herself, trying to take in as much of her uniform as she could, “What are you laughing at?” She looked up to see Jamie with a small smirk on her lips.

Jamie shook her head slowly, “Nothing…” There was a beat of silence before she spoke again, “Quick question… are you trying to scandalise the whole school?” She asked, her eyes scanning the length of Dani’s body, “Because if are I think it’s gonna work,” She joked.

“Yeah,” Dani replied, nodding her head slowly, “I think that when I bought this skirt I underestimated how short it would look,” She admitted with a small smile, “Does it look bad?” She asked, “And when I say that I mean is it ugly and ill-fitting?” She almost dreaded Jamie’s answer.

Jamie shook her head again, “No,” She replied, maybe a little too quickly, “Trust me when I say you definitely don’t look ugly… it actually suits you a little bit… the colour looks great on you,” She tilted her head to the side slightly. Again, the compliment seemed to mean so much more coming from Jamie, Dani reasoned that complements meant more coming from Jamie because she didn’t have to be nice to her; Jamie didn’t have to tell her she looked good.

“Thank you,” Dani mumbled with a small smile.

“I mean, you might get an incident slip because of the length of the skirt, but uh, other than you’ll be totally fine,” Jamie shrugged her shoulders, there was a teasing element to her voice, but still, Dani couldn’t help but as questions.

“An incident slip?”

“Yeah, it’s one of the punishments the school does… we have a few different ones; you have your obvious detention, then you have incident slips, and so on and so on… the level of punishment you get depends on what you did… if you’re a little late or if you talk back to a teacher you might get detention… but you get an incident slip when—”

“Let me guess you get one of those when you cause an incident?” Dani asked with a small smile.

“Yeah, you get… so you’re not just a pretty face,” Jamie replied with a small smile, “But the thing to remember with incident slips is; if you get three of them, you get put on report, which is again, exactly what it sounds like… you’re giving like this little paper book, and you have to take it to all your lessons, and your teachers give you a brief evaluation on how you did in the lesson… and then you have to bring it home for your parent, or guardian, or whatever to sign… if you get a perfect report for the full week, you get taken off the report, if you even get like, one bad review from one teacher, you’re staying on it until you get a perfect week… I was once on report for the majority of the year.”

“Okay… so what happened if the uniform isn’t right?”

Jamie shrugged, “I guess that depends on who catches you, I suppose,” She explained, “Some of the teachers are really lenient like they honestly don’t give a shit… but then others give too much of a shit,” She sighed, “But the worst thing that has ever happened to me over my uniform was that I got put in isolation, which I actually loved, you just sit in a room by yourself all day, and like copy work out of a textbook… it’s a top tier day if you ask me… you don’t have to listen to your teachers droning on and on in lessons… and you also don’t have to see anyone else… it’s great.”

Dani couldn’t imagine a punishment that sounded less great than isolation, and she couldn’t quite believe that Jamie could enjoy a day like that, she couldn’t even begin to imagine how she would feel being sat in a room on her own, copying things out of textbook rather than being surrounded by other people, and actually learning something. “Oh well, if you only end up in solitary confinement, you might as well disregard all the rules,” She replied sardonically and rolled in her eyes at the dark-haired woman, before looking down at her uniform one last time.

“I’ll tell you what,” The sound of Jamie’s voice caught her attention instantly, and she looked up to see her loosening her tie and unbuttoning the top two buttons of her shirt too, “If you get sent down for incorrect uniform, I’ll make sure you don’t have to deal with it alone… there is absolutely no way you can be American and risk getting detention… especially not looking like that… you’ll be like catnip for all the dick heads.”

Dani chuckled and nodded her head slowly, “How gallant of you to do that for me,” She joked, “Are there more dick heads at your school than just Peter?” She asked.

“You’ve only met the boy once and you’re already calling him a dick head?” Jamie asked, a small smirk spreading across her face, “I like you more and more every day…” She admitted with a small laugh.

The blonde shrugged her shoulders and smiled slightly, “Just calling them as I see them.”

“No, I really like it, I think that level of honesty will get you far,” Jamie admitted, “And to answer your question, yes, there are quite a few more dickheads than just him… like most of the lads in my year for example… some are alright but for the most part… dick heads.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

“Don’t mention it,” Jamie replied, “After all as your buddy for the next few days that’s what I’m supposed to do,” She gave a slight shrug, “Gotta be all about that solidarity until you get more comfortable, which means giving you all the warnings about people, and making sure you don’t get in trouble alone.”

“I really appreciate that,” Dani smiled again, before her eyes scanned the length of Jamie’s body, taking in the formfitting black pants she was wearing, and slightly heeled shoes, that weren't dissimilar to her own, “Hey, how come you’re not wearing a skirt, you’re standing there talking about solidarity but you’re wearing pants… any reason?”

“The uniform rules do state skirt or trousers,” Jamie replied with a shrug.

“Well, yeah but aren’t the pants options usually for the guys?”

Jamie shook her head slowly, “Nah, that option is open to anyone,” She explained with a small shrug, “I’ve never been a huge fan of pencil skirts myself, so I don’t really feel like wearing one six hours out of the day, five days out of the week.”

“And there are no rules to how tight they are?” She asked, trying her hardest to keep her eyes firmly on Jamie’s face.

Jamie nodded her head, “Oh, yeah, course there is,” She replied, “But when me, Dad, and Mikey all went shopping for school supplies a few weeks back, my dad just gave me the money and left me to my own devices…” She explained, “The trousers are supposed to be like straight cut ones, and not show any shape to your legs but, meh, be reyt,” She shrugged her shoulders.

Dani chuckled and shook her head slowly, “What are you saying? Be Reyt?” She asked, “Do you just make sounds and hope they make sense?”

“Be Reyt, is Yorkshire for; it’ll be alright… of course, we do usually only say it when things will most definitely not be alright, but we can’t really change what’s happening… so we just sort of say… be reyt.”

Dani smiled and nodded her head slowly, “I like it,” She smiled, “It’s sort of like when someone gives you bad news and you say _could be worse_ no matter how bad the news is.”

“Yeah, it’s exactly like that.”

“I have a question for you, what is the most dramatic thing that you have ever said ‘be reyt’ about?” Dani asked, using air quotations around the phrase.

“Uh, I think that would have to go to the time that me, Denny, and a couple of his mates were on a trip somewhere, and on the way home this guy’s car broke down and started spewing out all this black smoke… there was a little bit of fire coming from the engine too… so we all ran from the car and ended up waiting hours in the rain while a recovery truck came for us and his wrecked car… but none of us were hurt so… be reyt.”

“Could be worse,” Dani replied, nodding her head in agreement, she could hardly keep the smile off of her face when Jamie smiled at her, a soft, genuine smile, one that over the past week she was growing ever so fond of.

“So how are you feeling today?” She asked, “Ready to take on the first day at a new school?”

“Yeah… I guess,” Dani replied, “I’m a little nervous… and it feels weird to not be going to school today with my friend that’s in Birmingham… I’ve been around them practically my whole life… I’m excited about this too though… in a way.”

“Well, I think it’s only natural to be nervous about something like this,” Jamie said, “But it’s good that you’re excited too… just a warning, that feeling will probably go away as soon as you step inside that school… because it really is a shit hole.”

“It is?” Dani asked.

Yeah, I mean, it’s not completely terrible don’t get me wrong, there are worse schools around here, but it’s nowhere near the best school either… the teachers are alright, but the actual building leaves something to be desired.”

“Am I going to regret doing this? Because with what Peter said about the education system, and what you’re saying about the school, it feels like I am going to regret this a lot.”

Jamie chuckled and shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t know, I guess you’ll have to be the judge of that one.”

A knock-on Dani’s door pulled their attention away from each other, Dani gave Jamie a soft smile before speaking, “Come on in,” She chimed, smiling softly when Mikey shuffled into the room.

“Awwh, don’t you look cute,” Jamie teased him, ruffling up his hair with a wide smile.

“Get off,” He grumbled, moving out of the way of his older sister and neatening his hair out, he looked up, turning his attention to the blonde, Mikey’s eyes widened as he saw Dani, a small smile spreading across his face, “Well, someone’s gonna be popular turning up to school looking like that,” He commented, nodding his head at the blonde woman.

“Gi’oer Mikey,” Jamie replied, shaking her head slowly, and again, while Dani was sure that Jamie was just making random noises, whatever she said had been understood by the younger boy, as he gave Dani a mumbled apology as he did his best to fight off a smirk.

“Well, that was the plan,” Dani said in jest, turning her attention to Mikey, “So I’m really glad you think it’s gonna work… you look great too, very dapper,” She commented, hoping to make him feel a little better and a little less embarrassed than he looked, “I prefer the tie you’re wearing to this one, how come they’re different?” She asked, nodding at the tie Mikey was wearing, it had the same navy-blue on it that her's and Jamie's did, but with the navy-blue was also light blue, in diagonal stripes down it.

“Because we’re in sixth form,” Jamie explained, “Years seven to eleven wear the striped tie, sixth form just have the navy tie… it’s to make it easy to tell us apart. Personally, I prefer these ones, and think we should all have the same tie but…” She trailed off as she typed out a message on her phone, before slipping it into the back pocket of her pants, she gave both Dani and Mikey a small smile before speaking again, “We’d better get going, you both ready yeah?”

Both Dani and Mikey gave slow nods, and it was clear from the look on his face that Mikey felt just as nervous as Dani did.

* * *

The walk to school had been short, and fairly quiet with the occasional bit of small talk as Jamie tried to prepare Mikey for his first day, all the while Mikey seemed to drag his feet, walking as slow as humanly possible. When they reached the school, it was still fairly empty, with a few younger students who looked to be roughly the same age as Mikey making their way around the school, with who Dani assumed were their older siblings.

Jamie nodded her head to the left of them, before leading Dani and Mikey down a short corridor, coming to a stop outside a set of double doors that were labeled ASSEMBLY HALL _,_ she turned on her heel and gave Mikey a soft smile, “Right, you need to be in there,” Jamie explained, “You’ve got some mates meeting you here, yeah?” She asked Mikey nodded his head slowly, “Okay… I’ll see you later then, I’ll come and find you during the morning break to check in… good luck, and have fun… if you need _anything_ … just drop me a text… alright?”

There was something to Jamie’s tone of voice when she spoke to Mikey that morning, a tone that Dani hadn’t heard Jamie use on the younger boy before, it was caring, nurturing, and slightly motherly, and it made her heart melt.

Again, Mikey nodded his head slowly, “Yeah, okay,” He replied quietly, “I’ll see you later,” He took a deep calming breath, before pushing the doors open and heading into the hall to join a group of kids the same age as him, all sat on chairs and all of them seemingly buzzing with excitement and nerves.

Jamie craned her neck to keep an eye on Mikey, only looking away when the door fully closed, Dani watched as she seemed to do a calming breath of her own before giving Dani a small smile, “Right, now we need to get you to the office and get your class schedule and then you can start the day properly." 

“Mikey doesn’t need to do that first too?”

Jamie shook her head slowly, as she started walking in the direction they had just come from, “No, Mikey needs to be in there with the rest of the first years,” She explained, “They’ll have a welcoming assembly, and find out what forms they’re in… when they’re in their form room, their form teacher will give them they’re class schedule… which is how most of us will get ours too… but you need to know what form you're in first, so we’re heading to the office for yours.”

“Form room?” Dani asked.

“Yeah, form room would be like your homeroom, I think,” Jamie explained, “Every morning you get to school and you go to your form room, you have to be there for 8:45, lessons don’t start until 9:05 but form room is where they check attendance for the first time of the day… it’s also a time for you to make sure you have everything you need for all your lessons… after form room, you head to first period which lasts from 9:05-10, as Rebecca explained, you have two periods in the morning, be it two lessons or a lesson and a free period, whatever you have you’ll have two periods and then you’ll have morning break, which lasts fifteen minutes…then you have your third-period lesson from 11:20 to 12:20 and then you have lunch break… after lunch break you go back to your form room,” Jamie explained with a small smile, “We have 'homeroom' twice just to make sure no one decided to go home halfway through the day if it’s on record that you were in both morning and afternoon form sessions if you’re not in a lesson for a good enough reason you’ll—”

“Let me guess, I’d get an incident slip?”

Jamie nodded her head and smiled, “Yes… there might also be a phone call home to see if you’re there, and then if you’re not… you’d be in a world of trouble when they finally found you…” There was a beat of silence before Jamie spoke again, “I’m speaking from personal experience when I say that.”

“You skip classes a lot?”

Jamie shook her head, “No, I’ve only done it once or twice, and I only did it in the classes that I didn’t care about, like last year, by November I knew for a fact that I was dropping business studies and wouldn’t be continuing it this year… so I skipped a few of my business studies classes and ended up on report.”

“I don’t think I’ll be doing anything like that, so it’s not really a worry,” Dani smiled.

“You say that now, Poppins, but you have picked some shitty A-Levels… no offence… and you’d be surprised at how persuasive some people around here can be.”

“And by some people, I’m guessing you mean you?” Dani asked with a small smile.

She watched as a smirk pulled at Jamie’s lips, the dark-haired woman shook her head slowly, “Well I didn’t mean me,” She admitted, “But it’s good to know you think I could be persuasive if I wanted to be,” Dani mentally kicked herself for her comment, her heart beating rapidly in her chest as she felt a slight blush creep into her cheeks, as Jamie watched her carefully, her smirk never faltering, as she knocked on the door to the main office.

“Come in,” An all too cheerful voice called out.

“Morning, Mrs. Pollet… I’m here with Danielle Clayton, we’ve come to pick up her timetable,” Jamie explained as she entered the room.

“Oh,” The woman behind the reception desk’s eyes widened slightly, she was an older woman, with greying hair, and deep-set wrinkles appearing around her eyes and mouth, “Welcome to Horsforth Trinity and All Saints, dear, is great to finally have you here,” She smiled brightly.

“Thank you, it’s great to be here,” Dani replied, forcing the best smile she could, and watching as the older woman set to looking through files, muttering her last name under her breath as she looked for the item in question.

“Clayton… Clayton… Clayt- oh, here it is,” She smiled, leaning over the large reception desk and handing the piece of paper to Dani, “Have an amazing first day.”

“Thank you,” Dani said again.

“Any chance I can get a copy of mine while I’m stood ‘ere?” Jamie asked with a small smile, the older woman rolled her eyes before heading over to a small, old computer behind her, and checking the files.

Moments later, she was retrieving a piece of paper from the printer and handing it to Jamie with a slightly annoyed look on her face, “Awwh, thanks miss, you’re a star,” Jamie gave her a small smile, chuckling when the older woman shook her head slowly.

“Goodbye Jamie,” She replied dryly before getting back to her work.

Jamie gave her a small wave before ushering Dani out of the room.

* * *

Jamie had given her a quick tour of all of the departments she would need to know with the A-level classes she had taken, showing her the science block, the English and maths corridors, the history building, and the drama studio, that wasn't too far away from the assembly hall and the main entrance of the building, Jamie had also been kind enough to show her all the quickest routes to each of the corridors and buildings before she had taken her to the year 12 and thirty social area, as they still had some time to spare before they had to head to their form rooms. 

The social area was a decent-sized wreck room, with a small TV hung on the wall, and a pool table in the middle of the room, despite its size and amount of seating it had, Dani couldn't imagine this room being big enough for two grades, “I am going to get so lost in this place,” Dani chuckled as she dropped herself into one of the chairs next to Jamie, she couldn’t be sure how long it had been since this room had been redecorated, all she knew was that it needed to be.

The paint on the walls, was discolored and chipping off, there was chewing gum, trodden into the carpet so badly that it was black and looked more like a plastic substance than anything else, and the seats they were sitting on had holes in them, and had some of the stuffing missing. Jamie shook her head slowly, “Nah, you’ll be fine,” She assured her, “If you need anything, you’ve got us lot to help you… besides, with that face all you’re gonna have to do is ask some guy where to go and they’ll personally walk you there, trust me.”

“Well thank you for thinking I’m going to have that power over people,” Dani smiled, “But I really don’t think that’s true… and I know I have you guys, but what happens if I’m in English and you’re in one of the other buildings you showed me… how do I find you to know where I’m going.”

Jamie turned her mouth down slightly, “Get your phone out,” She instructed, Dani did as she said without any questioning, “I’m gonna give you my number, and I’m gonna tell you exactly what I told Mikey… if you need anything, just message me… okay?”

Dani nodded her head, and created a new contact for Jamie, tapping out the numbers as Jamie spoke them, her hands shaking ever so slightly, never before had she felt so excited and nervous to get someone else's number. She read the number back to Jamie, just to make sure there had been no mistakes before she quickly locked her phone making sure that Jamie hadn’t seen the picture she had of herself and Eddie as her phone background before she dropped the phone in her bag.

“Right then,” Jamie smiled, “Let’s see what classes you have today?” She asked, leaning a little closer to Dani and taking a look at her schedule, putting it next to her own or comparison, “Well there’s some good news for you… I hope…”

“What?” Dani asked, finding it hard to focus on anything other than the smell of Jamie’s perfume as it clouded her mind. 

“Looks like we’re in the same form as each other, and we have biology together too,” Jamie replied pointing at each of their second-period classes.

Dani looked between the two schedules and saw that they each had biology in room 28, she also saw two letters in the same box HW, each of the boxes on the schedule looked very much the same; lesson name, followed by a number, followed by two letters, in each of the boxes, the letters were different.

“Okay…” Dani replied, “How do you know we’re in the same form?” Dani asked, looking for any hints, the only things she could see the same on each of their schedules was biology.

“It says it at the top,” Jamie explained, “See, 13VL… that means that you’re in year 13, and have Mrs. Lloyd as your form tutor… you also have her as your history teacher,” She pointed at Dani’s fourth-period class and gave her a small smile, “You’ve lucked out on that one because Mrs. Lloyd is one of the okay teachers… she can be a bit strict sometimes… but as long as you stay on her good side, you’ll be fine.”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Okay… so why 13VL?”

“They’re just her initials,” Jamie replied, “Her first name begins with V and her last name is Lloyd, that’s what all the letters on your schedule mean, like biology, you have Miss. Williams…” She pointed to the small box, “So, you have biology, in room 28, with HW… Helen Williams.”

“Oh… that makes sense,” Dani nodded her head slowly as she continued to ask about the teachers she had, getting any and all information from Jamie that she could. 

When the bell rang to signal the start of the day, Jamie led Dani to their form room (which would also be Dani’s history classroom), the last thing that Dani had been expecting of her form tutor, was for her to be as stunning as she was. She was a tall woman, with thick dark hair, piercing eyes, and full lips, Dani hadn’t really known what she was expecting of a history teacher, maybe a stuffy, balding man or an older woman with salt and pepper hair… quite literally anything but the woman that stood before her.

“Miss, this is Dani Clayton, she’s the exchange kid from America,” Jamie explained as she entered the room, nodding her head in Dani’s direction, the older woman looked at her and gave her a soft smile.

“It’s great to meet you, Dani, I’m Mrs. Lloyd…”

“It’s great to meet you too,” Dani replied, as she went to follow Jamie the older woman cleared her throat quietly, Dani looked over her shoulder to see the older woman beckoning her towards her.

Dani moved to her quietly and stood at the front of the room, waiting for her form tutor to speak to her, what she hadn’t been expecting, was for Mrs. Lloyd to command the attention of the full room, with little to no effort, then again, Dani figured that when you looked like that, all eyes were on you no matter what.

“As you’ve all heard there are some exchange students in our school with us this year,” Mrs. Lloyd said, “And we are lucky enough to have one joining us in our form,” She gave a tight-lipped smile, “Everyone, this is Danielle Clayton,” She motioned to the blonde before continuing, “You will all have time to get to know her better throughout the year and in your own time, but for now, Danielle, welcome to form 13VL, if you need anything at all, just ask… please take a seat.”

Dani gave a small smile before moving to the back of the room and sitting in the chair next to Jamie at the small desk just big enough for the two of them, “What an introduction,” Jamie chuckled, "I didn't expect her to make such a big deal of your entrance," She admitted with a smile, she glanced around the room before looking back to Dani, "From the attention, you're pulling right now, I was right about lads lining up to walk you to your classes... they're gonna take her up on the offer to get to know you better in their own time." 

Dani shook her head, trying her hardest to ignore the looks she was getting from a handful of people in her form, "Can you help me prevent that from happening?" She asked.

"Yeah... I'm pretty sure that you just talking to me is going to help with that one," She replied, her tone soft, and her face far more serious than Dani had ever seen it. 

"How so?" 

Jamie rolled her eyes and sighed, lowering her voice slightly, "You'll soon realise that I'm not well-like," She explained, with a half-hearted shrug, Dani couldn't imagine anyone disliking Jamie, she had assumed that the dark-haired girl would be a lot more popular than she had made herself out to be, after all, she was nice, charming, funny, and absolutely stunning, weren't they all the things that usually equated to popularity? 

"I highly doubt that," Dani shook her head slowly. 

"Well thanks, Poppins, but uh, you can trust me on that one... and you'll soon see that." 

* * *

Form room was quieter than Dani expected, with everyone copying out their schedules into the planners they had been given, when Dani had asked why they’d needed one, Jamie had explained to her that you were supposed to use them to record homework that had been set and when it was due in, and that the younger students got rewards called 'planner stickers' and that certain amounts of planner stickers led to certain awards. She had ended her explanation by saying that she would most likely only ever use her planner to check her timetable, and that, after a while, she wouldn’t even need to do that anymore as she would soon learn her schedule by heart.

When the bell rang, to signal the end of form room and the beginning of their first lesson, Jamie walked Dani to her first-period class; Maths with Ms. Sharkey, “Right, so here you are…” Jamie said, stopping outside of room 4, “I’ll meet you here when I’m done with philosophy and we’ll head to the science building…” She looked through the small window in the door, before turning her attention back to Dani, “You’re gonna be alright, yeah?” She asked.

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yes, and thank you for walking me here, I really appreciate it,” Dani smiled.

“No worries… if you need anything, just text me, yeah?”

Dani gave her a small nod before heading into the classroom, all eyes seemed to be on her, and though there weren’t many people in the room, she didn’t like the feeling of being the center of attention, she was hoping that with there being a few new exchange students that she would be able to fly under the radar, it appeared, her hopes had been for nothing. As she stood by the door, looking around the rooms, her eyes landed on the teacher, an older woman, who Dani couldn’t help but notice resembled a toad, the older woman's tongue stuck out of her mouth in concentration while she wrote on the board, as the door closed behind Dani, the older woman looked over her shoulder and stopped what she was doing. 

“Oh,” She said, “You must be one of the exchange students,” Her voice sounded as old as she looked, it was fairly high and raspy, Dani would have put her close to retirement age, “Welcome to Horsforth Trinity and All Saints,” The woman spoke loudly and slowly. Dani couldn’t help but notice how offensive it was to address one of the exchange students this way, but that didn’t stop the older woman from continuing her welcome speech in the same tone she had used before, “My name is Ms. Sharkey… and you are?”

“Dani Clayton,” She replied, taking a couple of steps towards the older woman, and watching as her face seemed to drain of all its colour.

“Oh,” Mrs. Sharkey said, only this time, her tone was slightly embarrassed, as she heard the clear American accent, “Uh… please take a seat…” She quickly turned her back to Dani and continued writing the lesson plan on the board.

Dani scanned the room, looking for a place to sit, the room had nine tables in it, in rows of three, each table had room for two people to sit at, as she looked around the room, her eyes fell onto a mousy haired girl, who gave her a bright, wide smile, that reminded her so much of the smile Eddie had given her the first day she met him. The girl pointed to the empty seat next to her, silently asking if she wanted to sit there, Dani gave her a grateful smile and sat down next to her, as soon as she was in the seat, the girl began talking to her.

“Hey,” She chimed, her voice a little too cheery for that time in the morning, “I’m Ellie.”

“Hi, I’m Dani,” She replied, trying her hardest to match the wide grin Ellie gave her.

“You’re the American girl,” She commented, “I’ve always wanted to go to America… what’s it like?” She asked, her words flying out of her a mile a minute.

“It’s okay… I guess… but that really depends on where you wanna go.”

“What part are you from?” She asked, “Is it LA… No San Fran… New York?” She listed off the cities so fast Dani had a hard time keeping up with what she was asking her, “I bet it’s a big city, you look pretty cosmopolitan…”

“I’m from Minnesota,” Dani asked, “Like a really small town in Minnesota.”

“Oh,” Ellie replied, her smile dropping slightly, “Still, it must be so amazing there, I bet it’s way better than being here.”

“I mean, it has its ups and downs… it’s very much the suburbs, not unlike this place actually,” Dani admitted, “But uh, it’s okay…”

There was a beat of silence before Ellie spoke again, “You’re staying with the Taylor family, right?” She asked, her Cheshire Cat grin making its way back onto her face. Dani couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable with the way that Ellie said the name _Taylor_ almost as if it was something dirty, “Jamie Taylor?”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, I am, are you guys friends?”

Ellie scoffed and shook her head quickly, “God no,” She replied, “I was just asking because I wanted to wish you luck… I mean, you’re really going to need it living with someone like that.”

“Why?” Dani asked her eyebrows furrowing slightly.

Ellie dropped her voice a little lower so that only Dani could hear what she was saying, “Because that girl is notorious,” She shrugged Dani quirked her eyebrow slightly, giving her a questioning look, Ellie rolled her eyes and sighed in what seemed to be exasperation, “How can I say this… Jamie puts the _whore_ in _Hor_ sforth…” She explained with a smug smile, “She’s sort of like her mum in that respect.”

“Oh,” Dani mumbled, her eyebrows furrowing tightly as she thought about what Ellie was saying and how she had chosen to speak about Jamie so candidly, and how she had brought Jamie’s mother into the mix. Jamie had never said anything to Dani about her mom, just that she didn’t have one, at the time, Dani hadn’t wanted to press the conversation any further than that, she figured that had Jamie wanted her to know more about the situation, she would have told her more.

“Yeah,” Ellie’s voice pulled her from her thoughts, “Like, everyone knows she is… the apple never does fall far from the tree though, does it?” She asked with a small snicker.

Dani hated that saying, she had always hated that saying, she could honestly say that yes, the apple can in fact fall extremely far from the tree, she knew from her own personal experience that someone could be different from their parents. After all, she and her mother were as different as night and day. “I, uh, don’t know,” Dani replied shrugging her shoulders slightly, not knowing what more she could say, “Don’t they?”

Ellie shrugged, “Maybe some… but that apple didn’t… trust me… she’s been around a bit… and I mean, you’re totally her type so you might wanna watch out for her… because eventually, she will do something… I mean, unless you’re into that type of thing then…”

Dani felt her heart flutter slightly at the thought of being Jamie’s type and thinking about the other woman potentially making a move on her, Jamie had said that she thought Dani was hot, but back home Dani’s friends had said the same about her too, doing all they could to boost her confidence. She had never really thought that Jamie might find her hot in _that_ way, and suddenly she found it hard to breathe, she shook her head slowly, trying to clear her mind of any thoughts of Jamie and situations like _that._

“I’m, uh,” She stammered, “I’m not into girls… if that’s what you mean?”

The way she said it, served as both a response to Ellie and as a reminder to herself, that she _admired_ Jamie, the same way she had _admired_ Mrs. Lloyd when she had seen her that morning, and there was nothing wrong with _admiring_ someone.

“Oh… well I’ll be honest I didn’t think you would be… but then again, you never really know… but since you say you’re not I would definitely stay away from Jamie if I were you… I know that you have to live with it… but you don’t have to be friends with it.”

Dani’s eyes widened in shock at the way Ellie spoke about Jamie, referring to her as _it_ rather than an actual person, Dani would have hated to hear anyone be spoken about this way, but it struck a chord in her that someone could feel so negatively about someone who seemed as genuinely nice as Jamie.

“Excuse me?”

“What?” Ellie asked.

“You can’t seriously think it’s okay to talk about someone like that.”

Ellie rolled her eyes and sighed, “Oh come on Dani, lighten up, I am just trying to give you a heads up on how to get by here… and the best way to do that is by not being friends with people like _Jamie_ …”

“And what is the best way to get by here?” She asked tilting her head to one side, “Belittling people and saying shit about them behind their back?” She asked, “If that’s the way to do it, then I don’t wanna get by here.”

Ellie scoffed, “You can’t be serious right now,” She shook her head slowly, “Look, you’re new here, it’s your first day, and I get that you’re trying to be a good person… but trust me when I say you do not want to get mixed in with the Taylors… consider my offer… as I said, you don’t have to be friends with it.”

Dani watched Ellie carefully, her snide smile spreading across her face, she looked all too proud of herself for what she was saying about the other woman, and that didn’t sit right with Dani at all.

Especially not when Jamie had been nothing other than nice and welcoming to her since the minute she had landed in England, which was a lot more than she could say for the girl currently sitting next to her. Jamie had made comments about herself not being the most popular person in the school. She had also made comments about how she wasn’t well-liked, and it appeared that Jamie had been right about herself, she hadn’t even been at school an hour yet, and already people were talking about the dark-haired woman and warning Dani away from her.

Dani had never been one to care much about social status, or popularity, especially within the school, and while it seemed like Jamie and her whole family had quite the reputation here, one thing was for sure, Dani had never heard the Taylors say a bad word about anyone that didn’t deserve it.

That alone was enough for Dani to make her decision on who she would rather be friends with. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if anyone will be interested or not, but I have decided to start a Tumblr that is linked to this account because there is no messaging feature on Archive which I think sucks!! Feel free to come and check it out, or even just to say hi, or ask any questions you might have about this fic or my other fic Stop Me From Falling, or just for a chat about our favourite 80s lesbian couple. My tumbrl is colour-outside-the-liness . tumblr. com (it's a secondary account so unfortunately, I won't be able to follow anyone back on that account)


	9. Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always a huge thank you to everyone who has interacted with this fic so far, be that a comment, a kudos, a bookmark, and/or a subscription it all means so much to me so thank you very much!! A bit of a quick update this time, I really hope you like this chapter, when I first started writing it, I'd planned for it to be about 4k words... and in the end, I doubled that!! I hope you all enjoy this chapter!! And once again, thank you so much... I am loving all the Ellie hate in the previous chapter!!

**Eight**

_Nerves wracked her body that morning as she dragged her feet on the walk to school, following Denny and his friends as they chatted loudly. Not many things scared Jamie, not many things bothered her at all, but that day, the closer and closer she got to Horsforth Trinity and All Saints the more Jamie felt scared of what lie ahead of her._ _School had never been an enjoyable experience, at least, not since her brother Mikey had been born, as soon as that had happened, rumours began to fly about her mother, rumours that Jamie heard a lot of but never really understood._

_All she knew was that not very many people seemed to like her mother anymore. She couldn’t understand why that was, at least, not until her mother left without so much as a goodbye._

_Leaving her, Denny, and Mikey behind with their dad, and a world full of scathing looks and nasty words. Even other children at school had started to say mean things about her in the past couple of years, and when she got home things were no better, the bullying and teasing only continued thanks to Denny. Over summer, she'd had a little bit of solace, not being around the other children at school had given her a short break from the relentless taunting and any time Denny said something to her, their dad soon put an end to it._

_Then there were the days that she would be at Rebecca's house, which just so happened to be the one place that no one had ever said anything negative about or to her._

_The Jessels had become something of a second family to Jamie._

_With Rebecca always inviting her over for sleepovers or just to have dinner, and her parents always making Jamie feel at home from the second she walked in the door and making it clear to her that she was welcome there any time, and any day. Jamie was sure that they were some of the nicest people in the entire town, and she had always thought that she had been friends with Rebecca for as long as she could remember. Their mothers had been best friends and had spent most of their time together before Lousie Taylor had left Horsforth, meaning that growing up she and Rebecca had always spent their time together._

_Rebecca Jessel was the best friend that Jamie had ever had, whenever anyone else said anything about Jamie, Rebecca had always been there to try and cheer her up in any way that she could, and when everyone else in their primary school had started to bully her, Rebecca had stood by her, choosing Jamie's friendship over everyone else. Of course, Rebecca had never been as unpopular as Jamie, people still liked her._

_But now, Jamie couldn't help but worry that a totally new school, with a hell of a lot more people in it, could easily change the way that Rebecca saw her and could turn the other girl to find new friends, and maybe even start bullying her too, after all, if her own brother could turn his back on her, and blame her for things that she'd had no control over, things that she hadn't even understood at the time, then surely, her best friend could do the same._

_It was something that had been plaguing Jamie for months._ _And that day, those worries, those fears were infinitely worse than they ever had been._

_She already knew that people said some things about her mother, she knew that from Denny, whenever the older boy had a particularly hard day at school, he would come home and take it out on her worse than he usually did._

_"W_ _ould you hurry the fuck up!”_ _Denny’s voice pulled her from her thoughts, it seemed to crack through the stillness of the early morning, she looked up to find him watching her with expectant eyes, his friends all looking on in silent amusement._

_“Yeah. Sorry,” She mumbled, picking up her speed slightly._

_He shook his head slowly and rolled his eyes before starting his conversation with his friends again. The last thing that Jamie wanted was to walk faster; the faster she walked the quicker she got to school and the quicker she got to school the sooner the bullying would start up again._

_She dreaded that all too familiar feeling of walking into a room and knowing that everyone had just been talking about her, it was something that happened frequently at her old school, it happened on the streets too._

_Everywhere Jamie went, people would talk about her._

_It was a feeling she had gotten all too used to in the years after her mother left._

_She could hear Denny laughing away with his friends, and every so often he would look over his shoulder catch sight of her, and roll his eyes, before turning his attention back to the other boys._

_When they reached the school, Denny turned around to face her sighing in exasperation, “You need to be down there,” Denny said, pointing to the doors on their left, “You go through them and 'ead straight down until you reach some doors that say assembly hall on ‘em,” He sounded bored, and like he would rather be doing anything other than talking to his sister, which, Jamie knew was most likely the case._

_“Okay,” She mumbled nodding her head slowly._

_“I’ll meet you here at the end of the day.”_

_With that he walked away from her, leaving her, with a perpetual feeling of anxiety, dread, and loneliness, a feeling, Jamie had become all too used to._

* * *

She couldn’t concentrate, at all, not that she really cared that much about anything her philosophy teacher, Mr. Chapman had to say anyway, Jamie had always liked to see this is as a throwaway class, in fact, that’s how she viewed most of her A-Levels, she was simply there because she had to be. She’d spent the best part of the introductory lesson back to A-Level philosophy doodling in her notebook and trying to keep her mind from wondering to Dani and Mikey, hoping they were having enjoyable class, though with Dani in maths, and with Mikey no doubt having to do Ice breakers with his form, she could only imagine that their day was as boring as hers.

Though she had to admit, she did feel a little sorrier for Dani having to spend the first hour of the day with Ms. Sharkey, she’d only ever had maths with Ms. Sharkey once, when she was in her second year of high school, and she was sure that she was the worst Maths teacher in the whole school. Always finding a way to be slightly offensive without her realising it, always making her lessons far more boring than they needed to be, and always being ridiculously strict over the smallest of things.

While Mikey would have had an infinitely easier morning, sitting in a classroom full of kids going through the exact same thing as him all trying their hardest to come up with the most interesting thing they could to introduce themselves to the rest of their form. Jamie could only imagine what Mikey’s icebreaker had been, after all, she knew her little brother didn’t have many hobbies or interests, she remembered how hard it had been for her to stand at the front of the class and say something interesting about herself.

When the bell rang, she was the first person out of her seat and out of the door, making her way through the crowded corridor, holding her head high, ignoring the comments and looks, and heading straight for the maths corridor to meet Dani. Having her mind so set on something had definitely made it easier to ignore other people that morning. 

As she reached the classroom, she could see everyone only just packing away their things, and as Dani dropped her book into her bag, she caught sight of Jamie through the small window in the door, she gave her a small smile and a wave, before continuing to pack away her things. A couple of people left the room before Dani did, ignoring Jamie entirely as they walked past her. If she was honest, she preferred it when people acted like she didn’t exist to when they would talk about her.

“Hey,” Dani greeted her, her usually bright, cheerful smile stamped on her face.

Jamie was sure that she had never seen a person look happier to see her than Dani did at that moment, and it was something that Jamie could definitely see herself getting used to.

“How was your first class of the day?” Jamie asked giving her a small smile, “I can only imagine that with Ms. Sharkey it was absolute hell, but I’ll take your word for it over my assumption.”

“It was okay… we didn’t do much,” Dani admitted, “And when I first walked in she started talking to me in this really loud, and slow voice, I don’t think she expected me to be American and speak English.”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, as she began to make her way down the corridor, heading towards the stairs, “Yeah she’s like that, you should have seen what she was like when Owen first moved to this school, couldn’t quite believe it myself.”

“So, she’s a bigot to everyone?” Dani asked.

Jamie nodded her head once again, just as she was about to say something to Dani, Ellie Jones passed them on the stairs, turning her head to give them both a disgusted look before she rolled her eyes and made a noise at the back of her throat, and looked away again. Jamie furrowed her eyebrows and gave a small breathy laugh before looking at Dani, if the blonde had noticed the other woman’s actions it definitely didn’t seem to bother her in any way. “Wonder what’s up her arse,” Jamie chuckled nodding in the direction of the other woman as she continued to walk away from them.

“Who knows,” Dani sighed, “She seemed to be in a mood in class too,” She shrugged.

“She was in maths with you?”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, I sat next to her… didn’t say much though, she asked me a couple of things about America and where I was from… and that was it.” She said, though there was something about her tone of voice that told Jamie that wasn’t entirely true.

“Are you sure that’s it?” She asked.

Dani nodded her head again, “Yeah… I mean not long after that the lesson started anyway, so I was a little too busy to talk to anyone.”

“Fair enough,” Jamie replied with a soft sigh, “Hopefully you won’t be as bored in this lesson, because I have a good feeling that you’re gonna be sat with someone pretty entertaining.”

“Oh, is Owen in this class too?” Dani asked with a small smirk.

Jamie shook her head slowly, “You can find your own way around the school after that one,” She began to pick up her speed a little, stopping when she felt Dani’s hand wrap around her wrist, the same way she had on their walk around Castle Hill.

“Okay, I’m sorry, you’re very entertaining… please don’t leave me,” Dani smiled.

“That’s a bit better… keep talking like you did before and there’ll be some consequences,” She teased, ignoring the many looks she and Dani seemed to be getting, as they stood in the middle of the corridor.

Dani chuckled and let go of her arm, “That doesn’t sound like much of a threat,” She shook her head slowly before her eyes seemed to widen at her own words.

“It was more of a promise than anything… and now I know you’re into it…” Jamie trailed off with a smirk, watching as a blush made its way to Dani’s face.

She shook her head again, “That’s not what I meant.”

Jamie shrugged her shoulders and began to walk once more, “Might not be what you meant, but that’s what I heard,” She chuckled, she led Dani out of the main school building and through the outdoor seating area and to a grey building, heading straight for the old wooden stairs and up to the top floor of the science block. Jamie checked the time on her phone as she stopped outside room 28, “Okay, so we’re a little late, but I think we’ll get away with it since you’re one of the exchange kids.”

“Is it really fair to blame me?” She asked, “That seems a little mean for my first day.”

“You’ll be fine… Miss Williams really will not care, trust me when I say that,” She replied with a soft smile, “She’s a really good teacher and seems like a pretty nice person and she’s one of the few teachers I’ll actually do work for… but if you do ever wanna get out of doing work in her class… ask her about Clive.”

“Who’s Clive?” 

Jamie shook her head slowly, “It doesn’t matter who Clive is… just trust me on this one… ask her about Clive,” She smiled before pushing the door open and heading straight for the table at the back of the room, right next to the window.

Miss Williams was one of the younger teachers at Horsforth Trinity and All Saints, she was short and thin, and had mousy brown, spiked hair, and glasses. She was bubbly, kind, and right off the bat had tried to make her introduction lesson interesting, though, Dani seemed to be one of the only people genuinely interested in anything that the older woman had to say.

While other people had seemed more interested in their phones, Dani had been busy making notes on even the smallest of things, and Jamie couldn’t help but find it incredibly endearing. She always found intelligence to be an attractive trait, and on someone as good looking, kind, and funny as Dani, it all seemed like a deadly combination, she’d been so focused on Dani through the whole lesson, that she’d missed the bell ringing, in fact, the only thing that had signaled the end of the lesson, was the scraping of stools on the tiled floor. 

She was instantly pulled from her thoughts, as Miss William’s tried to be heard over the ever-building voices, telling them the bell didn’t dismiss them, she did. Though, Jamie didn’t know why she bothered as most of her class was already out of the door.

Jamie pushed herself up from her seat and gathered her things as quickly as she could, before she slung her bag on her shoulder and led Dani out of the building, “I’m guessing you’re only in biology because you had to take something because, after that lesson, I don’t see how you could be in there because you enjoy it,” Dani commented, “You seemed a lot more interested in me and what I was doing.”

She hadn’t actually thought that Dani had caught her, then again, she figured that she should have known better than to be so blatant with her staring, she was usually a little more surreptitious with her leering, but with Dani, it seemed near impossible.

“Uh, yeah,” Jamie chuckled nervously, “I couldn’t believe you actually found something in that lesson to make notes on,” She lied a teasing tone to her voice, “But no, biology is something I actually like, and I took it as an A-level subject because I genuinely enjoy it… well when we’re actually doing something interesting I like it… but when Miss Williams is just giving us a welcome back speech and telling us what to expect of the year, and the doing recaps of last year... I am not interested at all... pretty sure you were the only listening to her if I’m being honest with you, Poppins.”

Dani nodded her head in understanding, “I see… do you think I’m really lame for making notes about stuff like that?” She asked.

Jamie shook her head slowly, “No more so than I already did, no,” She joked.

“Oh, well that’s okay then,” Dani chuckled with a small shrug as she fell into step with Jamie as they headed out of the science building, and back towards the main entrance to meet Mikey.

She’d received a couple of texts from the younger boy so far that morning, though more than him needing anything she was sure he had just been messaging her out of boredom. Every time her phone had buzzed in her pocket during her first-period class, she had been hopeful that Dani had sent her a message, and every time she had seen Mikey’s name on her phone screen, her heart had sunk slightly.

After she’d asked Mikey to meet her at the main entrance, she’d sent her friends a message letting them know that she’d see them all in the afternoon break, as they neared the main entrance Jamie turned to Dani and gave her a soft smile, “You don’t have to come with me y’know, I can get Hannah or someone to come and get you?”

Dani shook her head slowly, “No, I don’t mind doing this,” She replied, “I’d like to know how his first day is going… it’s nice to know that someone else is going through the same stuff I am…”

“Speaking of people going through the same stuff as you… how’s your mate in Birmingham doing?” Jamie asked. 

The blonde shook her head slowly, her eyebrows furrowing slightly, “I don’t know,” She admitted, “But I should probably check in on them, right?” She asked.

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Could be nice of you if you did,” Dani gave her a soft smile before pulling her phone out of her bag and typing out a quick message, they walked the rest of the way to the main entrance in silence, Dani tapping away at her phone screen, all the while.

“There you are!” She heard Mikey before she saw him over the crowd, chuckling to herself when she saw his head appear over the tops of other people, as he jumped to try and get their attention.

“Have you seen this?” Jamie asked Dani quietly, pulling the blonde’s attention away from her phone, Dani gave a small chuckle at Mikey’s head bobbing up and down, they walked over to him, weaving their way in and out of the way of other people, “You doing alright?” Jamie asked before her eyes landed on another boy roughly the same age as Mikey. He had dark hair, and a slightly rounded face, and stood just a little taller than her younger brother did, his blue eyes moved from her to Dani, watching them carefully, “Who’s your mate?” She asked, nodding at the other boy.

“Oh, this is Miles, he’s in my form,” Mikey explained with a small smile, “Miles, this is my sister Jamie, and Dani the exchange student I told you about,” Jamie couldn’t help but smile slightly as she watched a blush rise in Mikey’s cheeks as he spoke about Dani.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Miles said with a warm smile, “He hasn’t stopped talking about you both all morning.”

“Shut up,” Mikey grumbled, his eyebrows furrowing deeply.

“As long as he’s been saying good things, I’m fine with it,” Jamie shrugged, “You having a good first day?” She asked.

Mikey and Miles nodded their heads, “Yeah we haven’t really done anything though, first period was just us getting to know each other in our form, and then we had history and again we didn’t really do anything, we just got put in our seating arrangement and then Mrs. Lloyd just did some small stuff to get to know us more… when she saw the name Taylor, she asked me is I was gonna cause as much trouble as you do.”

“Well, that is a fair question to ask,” Jamie reasoned with a small smile, “I’d like to think you said no to that, but I think that’d make me a bit of a hypocrite,” She shrugged, “What about you, Miles, are you having a good day too?” She asked, caring a little less about this boy’s answer than she let on.

He nodded his head and smiled brightly, “Yes thank you.”

His reply was short, straight to the point, and very well-spoken, the more she looked at this boy, the more he reminded her of someone, and she couldn’t put her finger on who, it was.

“That’s great,” Jamie replied, before looking at her brother once more, “You’re gonna be alright finding your way to your next lesson, right, or do you want me to take you?” She asked.

Mikey shook his head slowly, “No, Miles knows the school pretty well, he’s been here enough times, he’s Mr. Wingrave’s nephew, and Mr. Wingrave made sure that Miles knew his way around the school before today.”

“Did he now?” Jamie asked, looking back at Miles, and now that she knew Mr. Wingrave was his uncle, it was clear to see the family resemblance. 

Miles nodded his head slowly, “Yes, Mikey and I will be fine, you don’t need to worry about him.”

“Well, that’s great,” Jamie smiled, “Uh, I’ll leave you to it then, yeah?” She asked, and Mikey nodded his head slowly, “Alright… I’ll meet you back here at the end of the day?”

“Yeah, see you later,” Mikey replied.

“Bye then,” Jamie shook her head slowly, before walking away from the two younger boys, and heading towards one of the small metal benches in the first courtyard of the school grounds, “Think Mikey might already be too cool to hang out with me,” She joked, turning her head to face Dani, “Although if he keeps hanging out with Mr. Wingrave’s nephew, who knows how long that could last.”

“I think it’ll be fine,” Dani replied, shaking her head slowly, “He seems like a good kid.”

“I guess,” Jamie replied, “It could go one of two ways really, either he will be able to get away with absolutely anything at this school… or people are gonna hate him because he’s buddying up with relatives of the teachers.”

“I’m sure he’ll be fine.”

“I hope so,” Jamie mumbled, there was a beat of silence before she spoke again, “What’s your next lesson anyway?” She asked dropping herself down onto the bench, Dani sat down beside her and pulled out her planner flipping to the last page to find her schedule.

“Uh, theatre studies, in the studio,” She replied closing her planner and dropping it unceremoniously back in her bag, she turned he head to face Jamie her eyebrows furrowed slightly, “You’re really worried about him, aren’t you?” She asked, and Jamie simultaneously liked and loathed that Dani seemed to know her that well already. 

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “A little,” She admitted, “But only because I know what he’s like,” She turned her mouth down slightly, “If anyone says anything to him, he’s not gonna have a backbone… he won’t defend himself.”

"I can see why that would be a worry... but what makes you think anyone is gonna say anything to him?" 

"Because some kids are just little twats... and that's what they do," She replied matter of factly, knowing that as soon as people found out he was the illegitimate child of Louise Taylor, and that Mikey wasn't actually a Taylor at all, the nasty comments would start, she turned to face Dani, "You said that you didn't have any siblings, right?" She asked, thinking back to the first conversation they'd had that morning in Leeds Bradford Aiport. 

Dani nodded her head slowly, "Right... so I have absolutely no idea how you're feeling now... and I'm not gonna sit here and say that I understand, because I really don't... but I will say that I know Mikey is going to be just fine." 

"And what makes you so sure of that?" 

“Because he has you.”

* * *

The rest of their short break was spent with Dani asking questions about the teachers she had for her up and coming lessons, and with Jamie trying her best to answer them, all the while Dani’s words ran around her head. _Because he has you_. She had never known someone have so much confidence in her in such little time, it was a strange, yet all too nice feeling, she wondered, if Dani actually meant those words or if she was simply being nice to her, trying to find any way she could to ease her worries. Whatever her reason for saying those words had been, it had worked. 

"Thank you for walking me to yet another class," Dani smiled, "Though, I am starting to feel a little guilty about you getting to all of your classes late, I really don't want you to get into trouble just because you were helping me." 

Jamie shook her head and gave her a reassuring smile, "Please don't be worried about anything like that... I haven't been worried about it all morning, I do have a pretty good alibi for being late today so they can't really do anything, especially not when they expect us to be showing you around..." She sighed, before shrugging her shoulders, "Besides, I've got P.E next anyway, so right now I care even less about being late than I did before... I actually wish you'd had a lesson in one of the back buildings so this would have taken a little longer." 

"Well, I am sorry to let you down on that one," Dani gave her a soft smile. 

"It's alright, I forgive you," Jamie joked, "Though your drama teacher might not forgive me if I make you late, she's just caught me loitering, so I best be off," She chuckled, "I'll meet you here for dinner though, yeah?" 

Dani nodded her head slowly, "Yeah, sure thing... uh, enjoy P.E..." She gave her a small smile before pushing the door to the drama studio open slightly, "I'll see you soon," She waved her hand once before disappearing into the classroom, closing the door behind her, as soon as Dani was out of sight, Jamie turned right down another long corridor and headed to the girl's locker room for gym class. A class that she hated above all others. Though she would be lying if she said it didn't come with its perks. 

Such as winding-up her teachers and seeing just how far she could push them before being asked to leave their lesson, or the practical lessons at least, whenever she found herself in a gym class that required her to play sports, she had little to no enthusiasm to take part. But when they did their theory lessons and learned more about sports science, she cared a little bit more. She walked into the changing rooms, ignoring all the scathing looks, and muttered comments about her and her sexuality, and dropped herself down onto one of the benches, before placing her bag in the spot next to her.

She leaned her head against the wall behind her and tuned out the hushed voices of all the girls around her, she closed her eyes slowly and willed herself to focus on just about anything else. Her phone buzzing in her pockets pulled her from her thoughts.

**From Unknown: Hi. It’s Dani… you don’t need to meet me at the drama studio anymore if you don’t want to. Rebecca is in the same class as me… you can still meet us there if you want to?**

Jamie quickly saved Dani’s number to her phone, before typing out a message to the blonde saying that she’d meet them both outside their classroom and head down to the social area together.

Dani’s reply came faster than she thought it would and a small smile spread across her face slowly, “Jamie, put the phone away, and get changed please,” Miss Bree’s voice cut through the chatter around her.

Jamie locked her phone and turned her attention to the teacher, who seemed to be watching her expectantly, “I haven’t got my kit, Miss,” Jamie replied with a small shrug, “Sorry to let you down and all,” She said sardonically.

“And why do you not have your kit?”

“Didn’t think I’d need it today… never thought I’d have P.E on my first day back,” She admitted, though, even if she’d known she’d have Practical P.E as her third-period lesson that day, she still wouldn’t have taken her P.E kit with her.

Miss Bree rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation, “You’re in year 13 now, Jamie, how did you not think to bring it, you really should know better,” There was a beat of silence before she spoke again, “You can wear one of the spare ones.”

“Fuck that,” Jamie scoffed, the words tumbling from her mouth before she could even stop them, Miss Bree widened her eyes slightly, “I mean, no thanks, I’ll pass.”

“It wasn’t a question,” The older woman shook her head slowly.

“Okay, but I still really don’t want to do that,” Jamie replied.

“Jamie, just please get changed, I don’t want to have to deal with this on the first day back,” She could hear the irritation building in the older woman’s voice as the seconds passed by.

It had never been a hard job to annoy Miss Bree, if anything, it was all too easy. These days, Jamie hardly even had to try, “I’m not putting on the spare one’s… they’re all miles too big for me when I do.”

"I don't care if they're all too big, just put them on, you need to take part in this lesson, otherwise teams will be uneven." 

“Like I give a shit,” Jamie replied.

With that sentiment, Miss Bree reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out a small booklet full of incident slips, she quickly scribbled one out before holding it out for Jamie to take. She rolled her eyes, before pushing herself up from the small bench and taking the slip of paper off of the older woman she folded it in half and dropped it into her bag without even reading it. 

_Well, start as you mean to go on_ , Jamie mused turning her head to face the older woman as she launched into her welcome back speech, explaining that they’d be playing a friendly game of dodge ball (and that she would have to join in too to make the teams even since Jamie wasn't joining in) before they started with their proper lessons on Thursday. As she sat there, zoning in and out of what Miss Bree was saying, she couldn’t keep her mind from wandering to Dani, and the kind words the blonde had said about her during their break. 

_Because he has you_.

* * *

As soon as the bell rang at the end of the lessons she was up on her feet and heading for the door, waving a quick goodbye to her teacher who called after her to not-so-kindly remind her that she needed to bring her P.E kit to the next lesson, and while she would definitely make sure to take it to the next lesson, she couldn’t promise to join in. She headed back to the drama studio, ready to meet with Rebecca and Dani for lunch, as she stopped outside the classroom, she pulled the incident slip from her bag and quickly read it. 

_Jamie Taylor- 11:25am  
incident: Refusal to comply and take part in the lesson  
Singed: Debbie Bree_.

Scoffing at what the older woman had written about her, she screwed up the slip and walked the short distance to the bin in front of her, dropping the paper in it, “What did you have there?” Rebecca’s voice caught Jamie’s attention as she and Dani walked out of the studio.

“Incident slip,” Jamie replied casually.

“So, you’re going to throw it away and just pretend it never happened and hope the issue goes away?” Rebecca asked.

“The issue will go away if I do that… if you throw it away there’s no proof you got one… and if there’s no proof you got one, they can’t put you on report.”

“And you think that’s going to work?” Dani asked, “I’m pretty sure teachers talk about this type of stuff… I could be wrong but…”

“It’ll be fine, Poppins, trust me… I only got put on report once because in one week the same teacher gave me three incident slips… so all I have to do now is make sure I don’t piss her off again for the rest of the week.”

Rebecca shook her head slowly, “Have you ever tried not pissing her off in general?” She asked, “If you did that you wouldn’t have to worry about being caught out.”

Jamie nodded slowly, “I did consider it, and I actually tried it once… but it was proper boring,” She shrugged her shoulders, a small smile making it was to her face when she heard Dani chuckle beside her, “So, how was dram then?” 

“It was alright, I suppose,” Rebecca replied, “We played an improv game, which is something I have never been good at… but it stopped us doing any actual work on the first day so I can’t really complain too much.”

Jamie sighed, “Well the first day back at school is never really filled with much excitement, but you’ve got to love the fact that even the teachers can’t be arsed… although I’ve got no idea what I’m gonna do during my free period after dinner.”

“What would you usually do?” Dani asked.

“If I had work to do, I’d contemplate doing it… wouldn’t get very far but I’d at least think about it, but I guess today I’ll just sit in the social area and try and make myself look busy.”

“You could always sit with Peter,” Rebecca said, a smiling forming on her face at the thought of the tall man, “He has a free period after lunch too… you could always find something to do together.”

“Yeah… maybe.” Though she didn’t want to say it to Rebecca, Jamie couldn’t think of anything worse than spending her free period with Peter Quint, it was bad enough that she was going to have to spend her lunch break with him.

Lunch seemed to pass all too quickly that day, with Hannah and Owen asking Dani about her day, and the blonde answering all their questions with her usual enthusiasm and being just as interested in their day as they were in hers. Unlike the first time that they'd met even Peter seemed to be more interested in Dani that day, trying his hardest to make her life or smile as he cracked jokes countless jokes about anything and everything. However, all of his jokes had been met with small humorless chuckles, which if Jamie was being honest made her like Dani all the more; she had never met a woman so genuinely disinterested with Peter and his so-called _charm_. 

Even his flirty comments- which he’s made despite Rebecca being sat so close beside him- had been met with hums or slow nods, followed by a quick change in conversation from the blonde. Which was a stark contrast to how Dani would act whenever she flirted with her. Every time Peter’s flirting was met with disinterest, Jamie could see it chip away at his ego just a little bit, it had been all too amusing to Jamie, Peter was definitely not used to rejection in any meaning of the word.

* * *

Their afternoon form session had been fleeting, with just enough time for Mrs. Lloyd to check attendance for the second time that day, making sure no one had left when they shouldn’t. As the bell rang, everyone around Dani started to pack away their things, as they readied to leave for their fourth-period classes, Jamie had never wished to be in a history class as much in her life, even if it was just to spend the next hour with Dani.

“Right, well enjoy your history lesson,” She smiled, “And I’ll see you later.”

“You will,” Dani nodded her head slowly, “You have fun during free period with Peter, you lucky thing,” She joked.

Jamie rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation, “Don’t remind me about that,” She grumbled, “Think I’m gonna go out and have the world’s longest cig break before seeing him because I don’t have the energy to deal with him.”

Dani shook her head slowly, “I am not at all surprised by that,” She smiled, “Although, do you really think it’s wise to smoke here?”

“There are smoking areas,” Jamie replied with a small shrug, “Even if there wasn’t I know some places that offer a bit of privacy and leave you out of view… they come in handy,” She smiled.

“I’ll be they do.”

“Do you want me to meet you at the end of history?” She asked, “Or do you wanna find your own way to your last lesson of the day?”

Just as Dani was about to open her mouth to reply, Mrs. Lloyd’s voice interrupted her, “Jamie, I am sure what you’re talking about is interesting, but do you wanna do that later and not when I have a class waiting outside?” She asked with a small smile.

“Yeah, sorry Miss,” Jamie replied before turning her attention back to Dani, “I’ll just meet you at the end of your lesson, yeah?”

“Sounds good,” Dani smiled nodding her head slowly.

“Bye,” Jamie replied, giving Dani a small smile as she back up out of the classroom, “See you tomorrow, Viola,” She called as she exited the door, only just hearing the older woman give her a small, empty warning to not call her that.

She wondered, just how much time she could waste before having to make her way to the social area to spend the free hour with Peter, not that he would mind if Jamie wasn’t around, it was no secret to anyone else that they didn’t like each other, but that had never stopped Rebecca trying to get her best friend and her on-again-off-again boyfriend to like each other. Jamie took a long drag on her cigarette before pulling her phone out of her pocket and checking the time, only to see she had a message from Mikey, confirming he’d meet her and Dani at the main entrance at the end of the day.

She quickly replied to the younger boy, before she heard Dani’s name coming from nearby in a hushed voice that she only just vaguely recognised, “I’ve only seen one or two of the exchange kids… Ellie introduced us to Aura at dinner and in the morning break… and Dani was in drama with me…”

“I’ve not met any of them yet, I’ve heard some stuff about Dani though, Will said he was in biology with her and Jamie Taylor,” The way the other girl said her name made her roll her eyes, she couldn’t believe that at the age they were, people would still say her name in a mocking tone of voice, “He said that Jamie couldn’t stop drooling over her… he said she was pretty fit though to be fair… is she?”

Jamie wasn’t surprised other people had seen her leering, she had been anything by sneaky about it, which, she hated herself for. "I mean… I’ve seen uglier,” The first girl said, her voice sounding unimpressed, Jamie had to keep herself from laughing at the blatant lie, anyone who had seen Dani could see she was an attractive woman, and she could tell from her tone of voice that the other girl thought this too, even if she didn’t want to admit it. “I’ve heard she’s got a bit of a mouth on her though.” 

“Really?”

“Yeah, Ellie and Jake M were in maths with her, and Jake was sat behind them both and heard Ellie just trying to be nice to her and give her a bit of a heads up as to what Jamie is… which is like fair enough, she needs to know what she’s living with…” She felt her heart lurch slightly at the thought that Dani had already started to hear rumours about her, she had known it would happen at some point, she had just hoped it would take longer than the first hour of the first day.“… but apparently, Dani just like snapped at her and called her out for talking shit… but like, can you really call it talking shit if everything your saying is true?”

“She called her out for it?”

“Yeah, from what I gather she called her a bitch… but I mean like, if anything happens to her now it’s her own fault… she was given warnings about her but didn’t want to listen… unless she’s secretly wanting something to happen between her and Jamie.”

“That or it already has.”

“God, could you imagine?” The first girl replied with a laugh.

Jamie took a deep calming breath, she knew it would only make matters worse if she drew attention to herself now, she didn’t need them to know that she’d overheard the whole conversation about her and Dani. As much as she wanted to know more about the situation, she knew these girls weren’t the right people to ask, she quickly stubbed out her cigarette and swiftly left her small corner of the smoking area, before heading to her free period, all the while she couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility that Dani, had actually defended her. 

* * *

The rest of the afternoon had been a blur to Jamie, her mind had been elsewhere, as she replayed the overheard conversion in her head putting it on a constant repeat, being sure that she didn’t forget anything about it, she’d need to remember all the information she could for when she was finally able to ask Dani what had really happened.

She’d spent her entire free period wanting nothing more than to text the blonde, wanting to get an answer sooner rather than later, she had to use every last bit of strength she had to will herself to wait until she could ask her in person. When she could get Dani alone away from the prying ears of people at school, talking to her about it as she walked Dani to her final class of the day had been out of the question, as had talking to her on the way home when Mikey was around.

She didn’t need her brother to hear the things people said about her. He’d find out sooner or later anyway, but this was something she wanted to talk about with Dani, and Dani alone. When they got home, she changed out of her uniform quickly and started to pace up and down her room. She had never been so nervous to ask someone something before, she took a deep calming breath, mentally scolding herself, for acting this way, and headed out of her room, knocking on Dani’s door with a little more aggression than she had intended.

“Uh, come in?” Dani called back, her voice sounding slightly confused.

Jamie pushed the door open and stepped into the room, “You alright?” She asked.

Dani smiled and nodded her head, “Yeah, a lot better now I’m out of that uniform,” She admitted, “I really don’t know how you guys wear those things for as long as you do… six hours was long enough, I don’t know how I’m gonna last the rest of the year.”

“You get used to them after a while… or at least I did… then again, I have been wearing a uniform since reception age.”

“Reception age?”

“Yeah, I guess that would be like your kindergarten?” She replied, “I was young, either way,” She gave her a tight-lipped smile, “How did you find your first day of school?” She asked, “I did mean to ask on the walk home, but I couldn’t get a word in edgeways with Mikey talking to you.”

Dani smiled, “Yeah, he was a little excitable, wasn’t he?” She asked, her question more rhetorical than actually wanting an answer, “But it was great thanks… you were an excellent tour guide…”

“Good… I did try,” She replied, “Did you get talking to anyone else throughout the day, y’know in the classes, we didn’t have together?” She asked, hoping that Dani would willingly tell her what happened, without her having to ask her the obvious questions.

“Uh…” Dani turned her mouth down slightly, “Maybe some people, but I didn’t talk to them much, I had theatre with Rebecca, and spoke to her a little before playing the improv game… I talked to someone called Simone in history, she didn’t have much to say… but no… I didn’t speak to anyone much… why?”

“Just wondered,” Jamie shrugged, “I, uh,” She sighed heavily, “I sort of heard something about you today, during my free period and I guess I just wondered if it was true… apparently you pissed someone off a little bit?” She tilted her head to the side slightly, “Someone called Ellie, in maths?”

“Oh… yeah… her… uh, yeah I guess that’s true,” Dani replied, her voice quiet, almost as if she was worried about what Jamie was going to say or do next, her blue eyes watched her carefully, as she took a step further into the bedroom and dropped herself onto Dani’s bed.

“Not gonna lie, I’m a little impressed,” She gave her a small smile, “Usually takes people longer than a morning to make an enemy… I mean, that has to be some sort of record,” She teased, hoping to ease Dani’s worries.

“Is that so?” The blonde woman asked, a small smile tugging at her lips, “I really didn’t think I’d said enough to make an enemy… but then again, what do I know?” She asked sitting down on the bed next to Jamie.

“You can tell me what happened… in fact, I’d rather you tell me what happened… especially considering I overheard that it was about me…”

“Trust me, Jamie you don’t wanna know… it was just some girl gossiping.”

“I’m not gonna be offended by anything she had to say about me… I’ve probably heard it all before anyway… but I would like to know what she told you.”

There was a beat of silence before Dani spoke again, “Okay…” She said drawing the word out slightly before she took a breath, Jamie could tell she was trying to approach the topic in the best way, and she had to admit it was all too endearing that Dani cared so much about Jamie’s feelings in all this when other people didn’t seem to share the same concern, “She just sort of made a comment about you getting around… well more to the point she said you put the whore in Horsforth… and said something about your mom… I’m so sorry, Jamie but—”

“Was that all she said?” Jamie asked, her heart sinking slightly at the thought of what Dani could possibly already know about her mother, “That she just called me a whore and made some commented about my mum?”

“That doesn’t bother you?”

“Well, I mean, it doesn’t feel nice, trust me… but as I said, I’ve heard all that before… me being a ‘whore’ is sort of common knowledge at that school at this point,” Jamie admitted, using air quotations around the word that had been thrown her way for as long as she could remember.

“That doesn’t make it okay though.”

Jamie shrugged, “I know that…” She replied, and before she could even stop it a small smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, “And apparently you let Ellie know that too… which I have to say, that was a bold move… people don’t usually let her know she’s such a bitch... but you did.”

“ Did someone say I called her a bitch?”

Jamie nodded her head, “Yeah… did you?”

Dani shook her head, “No… she said that stuff about you, and warned me about being your friend, and about living with you… and I just told her that it wasn’t okay to talk about people like that… and that if talking shit about people is how to make friends at that school then I’d rather not have friends.”

“But you didn’t call her a bitch?”

Again, Dani shook her head, “No… even though she was one I didn’t say it to her… I thought it, though,” She gave Jamie a soft smile, “Are you okay?”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Honestly, yeah… thank you for doing that, most other people wouldn’t… so… thank you."

“You’re welcome, and I don’t really care how long I’ve been there, I’m not going to let someone talk about people that way."

"No, you did the right thing and I really do appreciate it... I wish you'd told me all this, this morning when we saw her after your maths class... but at least I found out eventually." 

Dani gave her a soft apologetic smile, "Yeah, sorry about that, I guess I just didn't know how to tell you... I didn't wanna hurt you... but if anything like it happens again, I promise to tell you straight away." 

"Thank you." 

There was a split second of silence before Dani spoke again, "So, is she like that with everyone, or are you just special?” Dani asked, a small smile tugging at her lips, Jamie could tell she was trying to make light of an otherwise serious situation, and she had to admit she liked that about Dani.

Jamie smiled and nodded her head slowly, “She’s can be… yeah… she's like it with me and Peter… some other people as well… but mainly me and Peter…” She sighed, “Which if I am being honest always hurts more because it feels like she’s lumping me with him… and I mean she can call me a whore all she wants but to suggest I am anything like Peter…” Jamie shook her head and chuckled quietly.

Dani laughed in return and nodded her head slowly, “I think that would hurt me a lot more than being called a whore too,” She joked, she took a deep breath before speaking again, “I didn’t believe her when she called you it though… I really want you to know that.”

Jamie shrugged her shoulders, “Would it have made a difference if you did?” She asked, “If you’d believed it, would it have changed how you acted or… y’know anything else,” She asked motioning between the two of them.

Dani turned her mouth down slightly, before shaking her head slowly, “No,” She replied, her voice soft, “I’d have still said what I did… and I’d still wanna be… friends…”

There was something about the way that Dani said the word friends, it seemed to get caught in her throat as if she wanted to say anything else but had settled on that word instead.

“Friends?” Jamie asked with a small smile, using the same tone Dani had.

“Yeah… that’s what we are… right?”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah… suppose…” She replied, pushing herself up from Dani’s bed, giving her another small smile, “I’m gonna go make a cuppa, do you want one?” She asked.

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, thank you, I’ll be down soon.”

“Alright, see you down there… friend,” She smirked before leaving the room.

While she was more than happy to call Dani a friend, she couldn’t help but cling to the hope that they could move past that label into other territories, after all, the way it had been spoken between them, had left it open for the possibility of more. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if anyone will be interested or not, but I have decided to start a Tumblr that is linked to this account because there is no messaging feature on Archive which I think sucks!! Feel free to come and check it out, or even just to say hi, or ask any questions you might have about this fic or my other fic Stop Me From Falling, or just for a chat about our favourite 80s lesbian couple. My tumbrl is colour-outside-the-liness . tumblr. com (it's a secondary account so unfortunately, I won't be able to follow anyone back on that account)


	10. Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who had interacted with this fic so far in any way!! It all means so much to me and I appreciate your comments, kudos, bookmarks, and subscriptions more than you will ever know!! Thank you so so much!! 
> 
> I really have nothing to say about this chapter other than... here it is... a moment, quite a few of you have been waiting for, but not necessarily looking forward to!! Either way, I hope you enjoy this chapter

**Nine**

_“So, you’re actually going through with this?” Karen asked, her jaw tensed as she glared at the younger woman, “This is actually happening and you’re leaving for a year?” Dani could tell that her mother hadn’t been expecting this when Dani had said they needed to talk._

_Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, I am… at least if that’s okay with you… I do need you to sign off on this… they can’t send us without parental approval, y’know, since I will only be 17 when I leave.”_

_Karen took a deep breath, “Is Eddie still doing this?” She asked, of course, her mother was bringing Eddie into things, her mother usually brought him, and their relationship into a lot of things._

_She nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, Eddie is still doing this… we, uh, we actually got told we’d both be going to England.”_

_“Both of you?” She asked, her eyes seemingly lighting up at the thought of Eddie being in the same place as Dani for the exchange program._

_Again, Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yes, both of us,” She replied, giving her mom a slight smile, hoping it would be enough that she wouldn't have to say much else on the matter. While she loved that her mother had started to show more of an interest in her life over the past year, she hated that it seemed to coincide with the year that Dani had been granted the opportunity of a lifetime._

_“Do you know where in England you’ll be?”_

_Dani nodded her head, a little slower this time, “Yes… we do…” She trailed off, not wanting to give too much more information to the older woman, knowing anything she said could spark an argument, it never took much with her mother._

_“And where will be going?”_

_“Okay… don’t freak out over this… but I’ll be in Leeds… and Eddie will be two hours away…_ _” She took a deep breath as she watched her mother’s eyes widen._

_“No,” She shook her head, “Not happening.”_

_“Mom, I really don’t think it’s that bad… a lot of people are doing this thing and a lot of them are being sent to totally different countries, at least Eddie and I will only be two hours away from each other… I mean, that might as well be the same place.”_

_“But it’s not the same place,” Karen snapped, she shook her head slowly, “Is there no way you can change this?” She asked, “There is absolutely no one at all that you can talk to that can fix this?”_

_“It doesn’t need fixing, there is nothing wrong with what’s happening,” Dani shook her head, “Eddie and I have talked about all of this and we’re both happy to be going to different places we think that—”_

_"Y_ _ou’re happy to be away from him?” Karen asked, “Is this another one of those times where you say you’re thinking about breaking up with him?” Karen asked, “Because I really thought we’d talked about that before and I said that—”_

 _"No," Dani cut her off, shaking her head quickly, "No, Mom, this isn't like that..." She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down before she spoke again, "I love Eddie, you know that, and yes, I'll admit there was a time that I thought maybe..." She shook her head slowly, "This isn't about_ that _this is about me wanting some new experiences, and wanting to meet new people and yeah... maybe have some independence... but I promise this isn't about me leaving Eddie... it's not about..._ that _other thing..."_

 _Dani watched her mother carefully, trying her hardest to read the older woman’s expression, there was something about the look in her mother’s eye that told her she didn’t fully believe what she was saying._ _Dani remembered all too well what her mother’s reaction had been the last time she had spoken to her mother about_ maybe _breaking up with Eddie and the reason why she thought she should. Of course, her mother had soon put an end to that train of thought, cutting it down before Dani had even fully formed the sentence,_ I think I might like women _._

_Since then, Dani hadn’t really allowed herself to think much more about it._

_Always convincing herself that she admired other women, especially the beautiful leading ladies in the movies she would watch with her friends, or her mother, or even on her date nights with Eddie._ _She would always find herself watching in a semi-stunned silence when they would appear on the screen, their pretty faces in the lights of a film set, their make-up only highlighting their beautiful, soft features._

 _Dani would often catch herself thinking that she couldn’t tell if she wanted to be them or be with them. But she would always shake these thoughts from her mind, reminding herself that she wasn’t interested in women_ that _way, and would always train her eyes back onto the leading man, or if she were around him, Eddie._

 _Eddie. Her boyfriend, who was still attractive just in a different way. Rougher. More rugged, reminding herself that the feelings she had for Eddie, were_ normal _, traditional, and everything her mother wanted for her._ _Her feelings for Eddie were what she should have wanted for herself, they put her on the path to the life that everyone around her expected her to have; marriage, two-point-four-children, and living in a small midwestern suburb._

_"It had better not be, Danielle," Karen sighed, "If I find out that you're using this as an excuse to-" She cut herself off from talking, pursing her lips as if saying those words was something truly abhorrent and disgusting, she shook her head slowly, "I think you're right, you should do this, and have some time away from him... it might be the only chance you get... I mean, after college you'll end up married with kids, and then who knows when you'll have the chance to have an adventure again..." She said, putting on a sickly sweet voice, trying to make herself sound all too supportive, even though Dani could hear the motive behind her voice._

_The reminder that her future was very much already set in stone for her in the eyes of everyone around her._

_That she would marry Eddie and have kids with him. Whether that was the life she wanted or not._

_That was the life she was expected to have._

_The life she should have._

_The life that Dani knew she should want._

* * *

Her first day at Horsforth Trinity and All Saints had been a total blur, from the minute that she had opened her eyes to the minute she’d closed them again that night, she could hardly remember a thing, in fact, the events that stood out the most to her were the conversation that she and Jamie had at the end of the day and the conversation that she’d had with Ellie that had led to the conversation she’d had with Jamie.

She still found it hard to believe that Jamie hadn’t seemed overly hurt by the things that Ellie had said about her, and Dani had to wonder just how many times Ellie had said these things about or to Jamie for it to get to a point where Jamie just wasn’t fazed by them anymore.

The things Ellie had said about Jamie had played on Dani’s mind none-stop and the more she thought about them, she wondered how or even why the rumours had started. She couldn’t understand how people could speak so negatively about Jamie; Dani couldn’t imagine there being anything about Jamie to dislike. Even if the rumours were true, and Jamie had slept with her fair share of people, that didn’t make her a bad person.

Then there was the comment Ellie had made about Jamie’s mother, and how Jamie was just like her, since Ellie had made the comment, it hadn’t really been mentioned again, even when Jamie had asked what was said about her, she had never asked for more details on the comment about her mum, and she hadn’t given Dani any details about the older woman either. All Dani knew, was that Jamie’s mother wasn’t around. Which, left Dani with a world of questions she knew weren’t right to ask, she herself knew what it was like to grow up without a parent.

Dani had done her best to focus on anything other than that conversation for the rest of the week, doing whatever she could to remove all thoughts of it from her mind, and the more time she spent with Jamie, the more Ellie’s comments seemed to turn into white noise.

She had no idea how anyone could dislike Jamie.

After all, she had done all she could to make sure Dani felt welcomed into her home, and her small group of friends, and had shown her around the school on her first day and had even gone as far as walking her to her lessons, a gesture which had lasted most of the week, even though they shared hardly any classes.

Dani would sit with Jamie and her friends during her breaks, she sat with Rebecca in theatre studies, (though she had been all too disappointed to find Rebecca in a different history class to herself), she’d sat with Jamie in biology and during her morning and afternoon form sessions, and above all else that week, she had avoided Ellie Jones at all costs, moving to a seat at the back of the room for math class, sitting next to a guy called, Ian.

By Friday, Dani finally felt like she had adjusted to the new school buildings and her class schedule, one thing that had caught her off guard, was a class that she had not been expecting to take, personal and social care (PSE), a class that everyone in the school had to do third period on a Wednesday with their own forms, being taught by their form tutors.

Dani had felt like the lesson was a complete waste of time and felt that she could be spending that hour doing something more worthwhile, like having a study session for one of her A-Level classes, or that she could spend that hour in one of her A-Level classes.

There were, however, two _very big_ upsides to her PSE lessons, one was that it was another class she had being taught by Mrs. Lloyd, who had easily become her favourite teacher in the short time she had been at that school; Mrs. Lloyd seemed to make even the most boring topics seem interesting, and Dani already held a lot of respect of the older woman, and of course, there was the fact that she got to spend those lessons sitting next to Jamie, laughing at the small comments she would make under her breath.

While Mrs. Lloyd seemed to be able to make anything interesting, Jamie seemed to have the ability to make just about anything funny. Both of those factors left Dani eagerly awaiting next Wednesday’s PSE lesson far more than she probably should be.

* * *

She’d hardly slept that night, and while she knew it was her fault, she still hated the fact that she had been so abruptly pulled from the little amount of sleep she’d had by her phone ringing loudly across her desk. She sat for a moment, staring at the ringing phone, contemplating her options; answer it, and then spend the rest of the day awake, functioning on the three hours of sleep she’d managed, or leave it to ring, try and go back to sleep now and deal with it all later.

It had only been a matter of hours since she’d ended her last phone call and she wasn’t sure that she had the energy to deal with anyone else that early in the morning. However, she knew, if the phone call was Eddie, then he would most likely keep ringing, or texting until she answered, making her plan of dealing with it all later a moot point.

She sighed heavily before rolling her eyes and making her way to the edge of her bed to grab her phone. She widened her eyes slightly at the name on her screen; of all the people she had been expecting to be on the other line, her mother would have been the last person on that list. Taking a deep calming breath, she answered the phone and used the most cheerful voice she could muster, “Hey, Mom, how’re you?” She smiled, ever since she had landed in England, she’d had limited contact with her mother, and all contact she’d had with the older woman had been through texts.

This was the first phone call she’d had with her mother, all other phone calls she’d had had been from Eddie, or in the case of last night, a group FaceTime call with three of her friends back home. But never once, in the two weeks, she had been in Leeds, had her mother made the effort to call her. “ _I’m fine… I just thought that I’d call and check-in and see how you’re doing out there… I hope everything is okay with you?”_

Dani nodded her head slowly, despite her mother not being able to see her, “Yeah things are great here,” Dani admitted, smiling at the thought of her mother actually caring about how she was doing in England her being out there had been a major point of contention for them ever since Karen first found out about the program, “I’m having a great time and I’ve already made some good friends and—”

“ _And Eddie?_ ” Karen asked, cutting her off from what she’d been saying, “ _How’s Eddie?_ ”

“Uh, he’s good… or at least he seems it.”

“ _Well, according to Judy he’s having quite a hard time of it…”_ Her mother trailed off, seemingly waiting for Dani to give her more information on the dark-haired man, “ _He’s been thinking about seeing if he can get transferred a little closer to you, y’know see if there’s a back-up family that can house him so he can be closer to you and spend time with you and your new friends… like this Jamie character he’s heard so much about…”_

Dani felt her heart sink slightly at the thought of Eddie being transferred closer to her, “Uh, he really shouldn’t do that,” Dani replied shaking her head, a wave of anxiety washing over her at the thought of Jamie and her new friends finding out about Eddie when she had kept him hidden for two weeks. That and at the thought of Eddie putting an end to whatever game she and Jamie had been playing the past two weeks, while she knew it was wrong to enjoy the flirting as much as she did, she couldn’t deny how happy it made her when Jamie would say the things she did to her, and she knew, if Eddie were around those things would soon stop.

She knew deep down that they probably should stop. 

“ _And why is that?_ ” Karen asked her tone tense.

“Because I don’t want him making all these decisions based on what I want in life,” Dani admitted, trying her best to stay calm, “I want him to find himself outside of our relationship and to be able to experience some things without me… we can’t be together constantly… that’s not healthy.”

“ _And what exactly are_ you _hoping to find without him_?” Karen asked her tone tense, “ _We have talked about this. You’re staying with him… you’re going to marry him one day anyway… and we all know that… so why are you doing this to him?_ ”

She could feel her hands shaking slightly at the finality of her mothers’ tone, setting her future so clearly in front of her without so much of a second thought, without asking her what she really wanted. Of course, the last time she had told her mother what she thought she _might_ want, it had ended in a screaming match, and with Dani sitting in tears.

“I’m not doing anything to him, mom,” Dani shook her head slowly, “And it really hurts me when you say things like that… I love Eddie…” She sighed, “And I know that he is where my future is… but… I just want to do something for myself while I’m still young enough to do it and actually enjoy it…”

“ _Fine_ ,” Karen replied, “ _But I think you should at least focus on him a little more than you have been, according to Judy you’re hardly speaking to him… make sure you don’t abandon him on your way to finding something else… he’s a good man, Dani… he can give you a proper life… stability… that's what you need… that’s what’s going to matter in the end…”_

“I know mom,” Dani mumbled, her heart aching slightly.

“ _I will talk to you again tomorrow, but right now, I have to sleep… think about what I said… the last thing you want is to lose someone like Eddie… goodbye…”_

“Talk to you tomorrow… I love you, Mom.”

Her mother gave a mumbled, _love you_ , in response before the phone line went dead.

Dani sighed and pushed herself out of bed with a quiet groan, she knew after that phone call, there was no way she would be able to settle and sleep some more that morning, not with the way her mother left her feeling. The older woman had always been so quick to judge Dani for the little things she did, had been so quick to try and tell Dani what she wanted rather than letting her figure it out for herself, and the more her mother pushed her in one direction, the more Dani wanted to pull away from everyone else expectations. 

Even though she knew it would be a losing battle. 

As she got closer to the kitchen, she could hear someone moving around, the sound of clattering pots alerting her to someone else being awake, and while she knew whoever was on the other side of that door would make her feel welcomed that morning. There was one member of the Taylor family she was hoping to see more than the others, even if she knew that she probably shouldn't be feeling that way about the other woman, as she pushed the door open, she smiled slightly at the sight of Jamie making herself a cup of tea, still looking half asleep, and looking entirely too pretty with her dark-haired pulled into a ponytail and her face free of make-up. 

"You're awake," Dani commented quietly, trying her best to sound at least a little shocked that they were both awake at this time, “How come?”

“Keep getting woken up by you and those bloody phone calls you keep having,” She replied a small smile tugging at her lips, “It was bad enough I had to listen to you talking to someone until 4 am, didn’t need to be woken up the same way…” She looked over her shoulder and as her eyes landed on Dani, they grew a lot softer, and her smile dropped slightly, “You okay, Poppins?”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, I guess…” She sighed, “It was my mom… she’s really not happy about me doing this… she’s even more unhappy about me being out here alone… she just doesn’t want me to be doing any of it… she keeps telling me what I should and shouldn’t be doing… but never seems to care about what I want to be doing and…”

“Well, that’s parents for you, I guess,” Jamie replied with a small shrug, “They always wanna live vicariously through you… usually, because they made the same mistakes that they’re warning you away from… which makes them massive hypocrites if you ask me…”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah… and one day we get to become them.”

“Well, I mean… maybe,” Jamie shrugged before she turned her attention back to the task at hand, grabbing another cup from the cupboard to make Dani a drink too, “Y’know, if you’re into all that shit.”

“You don’t wanna have kids?” Dani asked, quirking an eyebrow at the brunette.

“Dani, are you asking me to get you pregnant… I mean… I’m good but I’m not that good,” Jamie teased, as she moved around the kitchen quickly, pouring the two cups of tea, adding two sugars and milk to Dani's while she added only milk to her own. 

Dani rolled her eyes and sighed, “Okay one, you wish… and two, I’m being serious… you don’t see yourself being a mom one day?” She asked. 

“I honestly don’t know… maybe?” Jamie shook her head slightly as she rejoined Dani at the table, placing a cup of tea in front of her, “Look, I’m not even eighteen yet, so I won’t lie I haven’t really given much thought to that kind of stuff,” She admitted, “Have you?”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, a little,” She explained, “I mean… yeah I know that I probably want to be a mom someday… but I haven’t thought about it much further than that… most of my friends are already planning out their future weddings and what they want their kids to be called… so when they turn that question around onto you… you start thinking about it.” 

As she sat there, talking about the future, she could feel her heart rate increasing slightly, the beast in the jungle looming in on her, practically breathing down her neck.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not yet, Poppins, but my friends and I aren’t exactly like that,” Jamie replied chuckling, “I think the furthest any of us are looking is at university options for next year… some of us haven’t even got that far yet.”

“By some of you, I am assuming you mean yourself?”

Jamie smiled and nodded her head, “You assumed right, well, me and Peter… we’re both much more _focus on the now_ types of people…Hannah, Rebecca, and Owen have vague ideas of what they want from life… but Peter and I don’t know shit and I’m not scared to admit that… Peter just knows that he wants to make a lot of money and he doesn’t really care how he’s gonna do it… and then there’s me and I have no plans… I won’t lie to you; I don’t even have a _pla_.”

“I think sometimes, that’s the best way to be though,” Dani admitted with a shrug, “Thinking about the future can get all too overwhelming sometimes, I try not to think about it that much, but it’s just so hard… I would much rather be able to focus on the now… but all my friends back home want to talk about is the next step in life.”

“A lot of people are like that,” Jamie shrugged, “Especially as we’re getting into our final years of school… it’s like… everyone expects us to know exactly what we want our lives to be… and they expect us to know right now… they want us to make these decisions and base the next seventy or more years on them … yet when I came out last year, I was too young to know what I wanted…”

Jamie trailed off as if she were waiting for a reaction from Dani, it was the first time Jamie had mentioned anything about her sexuality to her, and while thought made Dani’s heart rate reach an incredibly high rate, she was determined to not let that show on her face, instead, she gave Jamie a small smile, and nodded her head slowly, silently asking her to continue her train of thought.

“… I just think it’s ridiculous, y’know?” She paused briefly before talking again, “When it’s something they want us to do, we’re old enough to do it, we should be thinking about it… but as soon as it’s something that deviates from their view of normality, we’re too young…so I say, I’m too young for a lot of it… think about it, we’re seventeen, going on eighteen… we are still at the very beginning of our lives… so trying to plan every aspect of the future doesn’t work because nothing is promised, nothing is set in stone… and because of that making a lot of those decisions so young just seems futile… and I won’t do it,” She shrugged her shoulders, “I guess I’ll think more about the future when it gets here.”

Dani smiled at the other woman, hearing her talk this away about her future and how she was living her life, was so different from what she was used to with everyone else; all of her friends were obsessed with the future and where they would all be in the next ten years (which usually involved them all being back home having families of their own), while it seemed Jamie didn’t have much of a plan past the next ten hours.

There were a lot of things that Dani liked and _admired_ about Jamie and a lot of things that made her stand out amongst the other people that Dani would call her friends, but this, this had to be one of the biggest differences, and a huge thing that she suddenly found herself so drawn in by.

Dani knew which way of thinking she preferred, she knew which way of thinking made her feel calmer regarding the inevitability of growing up, Jamie’s way of viewing things made the beast in the jungle feel that bit smaller and a little more manageable.

“And that works for you?” She asked, wondering if it really was as good as Jamie made it sound, “Like, your dad is okay with you living life not looking any further past right now?” She shook her head slowly, “I think my mom would kill me if I lived that way… doing this was bad enough.”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, it definitely works for _me_ … but I’ll be honest with you, my dad is not as laid back as he seems… he does ask me about my plans and what I’m gonna do after sixth form… but here’s the thing… I don’t have _any_ plans at all… I don’t know what I want… I have options but I don’t know what I’m gonna do… do I follow Denny’s lead and get a job when I leave school and move in with some friends… or do I go to uni like dad wants me to… I have stuff to think about I’m just not pinning everything on my decision right now… I’ll think about it some more before I leave school and make a decision from there.”

Dani nodded her slowly, “I guess that makes sense… I definitely like that way of thinking, it’s better than the constant reminder that I’m almost 18 and really need to start thinking about this stuff…” There was a beat of silence as she sipped her tea, “So how come Denny didn’t go to university was there any real reason?”

Jamie shook her head, “He didn’t go because he didn’t need to; instead of going to sixth form like me, he did an apprenticeship in a garage, he was always really into cars and thought he could put that to good use, so he did a two-year apprenticeship at a local garage and when that was up he moved to a different city where his mates were gonna go to uni and started working in a garage there instead… He only moved to Manchester in June so you _just_ missed him when you got here… but from what I hear he’s pretty happy living it up with his friends, so who knows, maybe I’ll just get a job and do something similar.”

“Sounds like he had a lot figured out?”

“He had enough figured out to get away from this place, which when all is said and done might be the best plan to have… I know I won’t be staying here any longer than I have to.”

“You don’t like it here?”

Jamie shook her head slowly, “No,” She replied, “You don’t like your hometown?”

“Fair point,” Dani replied, “And it’s not so much the town I dislike,” She divulged, “It’s more the lifestyle, and what people expect of me… people just never seem to leave that town, they get stuck there like some kind of vacuum and everyone just marries their high school sweetheart and has kids before they're thirty… and while that is a perfectly fine life for some… it’s not me… and I guess I wanted to see more than just my little corner of the world before all that other stuff happens… I can’t just stay there my whole life…”

There was a beat of tense silence before Jamie spoke again, "Look, you seem pretty stressed out this morning," She commented, watching Dani carefully as the blonde sipped at her tea, “I’m guessing it has everything to do with your mum… and all this talk of the future… so I’m gonna help take your mind off it…”

“You are?” Dani asked, her head running wild with all the possibilities of how Jamie could take her mind off of things and a few thoughts of how she would like Jamie to take her mind off of things.

“Yeah…” Jamie replied, her voice pulling Dani anyway from her daydreams that she definitely shouldn’t have allowed herself to have, “You like history, right?” Jamie asked, “Like I know you’re taking it at A-Levels because you think it’ll help in life… but you actually enjoy it too, yeah?”

Dani nodded her head slowly, trying to clear her mind from any remaining thoughts of Jamie, “Y-yeah,” She stammered, slightly breathless.

“Okay, we’re gonna go get ready and I’m taking you somewhere… and I think you’re going to like it…” She gave Dani a small smile, “Go get ready… we’ll reconvene in about an hour… sound good?”

“Yeah, okay,” Dani nodded, she grabbed her cup of tea and pushed herself up from the table, giving Jamie a soft smile, “Thank you.”

"Don't mention it, Poppins," Jamie smiled. 

* * *

Roughly an hour later, and after saying goodbye to her dad and Mikey, she and Dani were climbing into her truck, and pulling out of her driveway, “I never saw you as being the type of person to have her own truck,” Dani commented, casually, “I don’t know why you just didn’t strike me as the type.”

Jamie smiled softly, “Well it wasn’t my first option I’ll be honest, but when I got my license, Dad gave me his old truck, see her got the other truck through the company he works work, so I got to have this one... Especially since Denny wasn't around anymore to try and claim it... and having a truck is way better than having no car at all, right?" She asked and Dani nodded her head slowly as her response, "… do you drive?”

Dani shook her head slowly, “No, I’ve done some lessons but uh, I guess it wasn't for me,” She admitted, “I was a little too anxious… maybe one day though…” She shrugged and gave Jamie a soft smile.

“Yeah, I get that I was shocking my first lesson,” She admitted, “And I mean shocking, I got lessons for my seventeenth birthday and had my first one the day after… I, uh, drove a little too fast at first and stalled the car way more than I should… but I got the hang of it pretty quickly and passed my test after one try, which really pissed off Peter and Denny.”

“That pissed people off?”

“Yeah, especially considering that it took Denny three attempts to pass his driver’s test and Peter has only just had his 17th birthday in like, June and has only just been able to start having lessons, he’s pretty pissed off… he wanted me to struggle so that if he passed on his first time taking the test, he could hold it over me but he can’t do that now.”

“You and Peter have a strange friendship,” Dani replied, chuckling quietly, “I don’t think I have ever known anyone to be like that, all my friends were happy for each other when they passed their tests the first time around.”

Jamie chuckled and nodded her head in agreement, “Yeah most people would be happy for their mates in that case, and Rebecca, Hannah, and Owen were really happy for me… but Peter and I are ridiculously competitive… I mean, stupidly so… it’s got me into some messes before put it that way.”

“Like what?”

Jamie turned her mouth down slightly, contemplating telling Dani the truth, that the only reason they were sat together now was that she’d lost a bet with Peter, but instead, she shrugged her shoulders, “Too many things to name,” She admitted with a chuckle, “You’d be better off asking Hannah, Owen, and Rebecca about the dumb shit me and Peter do… I’m a pretty competitive person as it is, but when it comes to him…”

Dani smiled slightly, “I’ll make sure to ask them sometime,” She replied, there was a beat of silence before Dani spoke again, “What was the best thing you ever won against him?” She asked.

“We crashed a party last year, and there was a girl there that we were both sort of interested in, now baring in mind, this was during one of Peter and Rebecca’s _off again_ moments… but this girl kept looking over at us and Peter thought she was into him… I knew she was into me… so…” She paused and gave Dani a small, slightly guilty smile, “and I’m not proud of this at all okay, but we made a bet about which one of us could sleep with her and … I won…” Dani widened her eyes slightly and nodded her head slowly, the look of shock clear on her face, “As I said, I’m not proud of it but—”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Yeah, well you didn’t need to,” Jamie smiled, “I don’t make a habit of doing stuff like it, and I have _never_ made a bet like it before and never would again… it was just the one time and it was dumb, and I’ll admit that but—”

“Jamie I am really not judging you, at all… and I’m sorry if you thought I was, I don’t ever want you to think like that,” She replied, and Jamie could see in her eyes just how genuinely Dani meant those words, “I guess, more than anything I was more shocked by your honesty about… _that_.”

“My honesty about a bet that _you_ asked about… or about the fact that I slept with a girl?” Jamie asked, Dani hadn’t said anything earlier when Jamie had casually mentioned coming out, but she had seen a flash of something in Dani’s eyes, something that she had never seen before when the blonde had looked at her.

“Both I guess…” Dani shrugged, “Most people I know wouldn’t be so open about being gay… or queer… or however you wanna label yourself,” She could hear the slight tone of panic in Dani’s voice.

“Well, I’m a lesbian, if that’s what you mean,” Jamie smiled softly, “And trust me a lot of people around here wouldn’t admit it either, some girls from the other colleges nearby might be open, and the universities for sure… I mean, I made the best with Peter at a uni party, she was in her first year and I’d just turned 17… and I'd also not long since come out… but I decided that when I did come out that I wasn’t going to hide it all that much… if people have a problem with it, then it’s literally _their_ problem… not mine.”

Dani hummed softly and nodded her head again, “I like that way of thinking…” She said thoughtfully, there was a pause before Dani spoke again, “So this girl from last year was she y’know your first experience with a girl?”

“You’re asking a lot of questions today,” Jamie smiled, “But no, she wasn’t…” She shook her head slowly, “There hadn’t been loads of girls before her, but there’d been a couple…” She admitted with a small shrug, “Why… are you starting to think I’m a whore too?” She asked with a small smile.

Dani shook her head quickly, “No,” She turned to face Jamie, a look of panic in her eyes, “No, I don’t think that at all, and I never want you to think that… it’s just that—” Dani cut herself off from talking and nodded slowly as she took in the look on Jamie’s face, “You’re joking.”

Jamie nodded her head, “Yeah, I’m joking,” She replied, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m really happy you don’t think I’m a whore… you’re one of the only people that don’t though,” She admitted.

“So, I’ve heard…” Dani shrugged, “I tend not to judge people based on trivial things like that… there’s no point, right?”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “I guess…” She replied, before taking a breath, “So what about you then?” She asked, glancing up at the rearview mirror, doing her best to avoid the confused- and all too cute- look Dani gave her, “What’s your experience like in that respect?” She shrugged, “I mean, it only seems fair you disclose some information with me now too… so…” There was a beat of silence, as Dani turned her mouth down slightly, her expression slightly nervous, as if she didn’t know how best to approach her answer, “Y’know what, forget I asked,” Jamie gave her a soft smile, hoping to erase any awkwardness, “You don’t have to tell me, and I don’t need to know…”

“I don’t mind you knowing,” Dani replied, giving her a tight-lipped smile, “I guess, I just don’t have much to share, y’know?”

“Poppins… are you a virgin?” Jamie asked, her dark eyebrows furrowed tightly, she could hardly imagine Dani hadn’t had the opportunity to have sex, not someone as gorgeous, funny, charming, and kind as Dani. In fact, Jamie would have bet anything on it that Dani had more offers than she knew about.

“Uh, no,” Dani replied, shaking head slowly, a slightly nervous chuckle entering her voice, and only making Jamie find her even cuter, “No I’m not a virgin…” She gave a small shrug, before speaking again, “There has only been one… person though…” She trailed off, hoping that was going to be enough information.

Jamie didn’t miss the way Dani used the word _person_ or the slight pause that came before it, as if she weren’t sure she could specify any gender as if there was more that she wanted to say but couldn’t allow herself to.

* * *

“I’ll be honest,” Dani smiled, “When you said you were bringing me somewhere that involved history, I wasn’t expecting anything like this,” She admitted, with a small, bright smile on her face, “Not that I don’t appreciate it but… why are we here?”

“Because… it’s one of the only things you can do for free in the whole city," Jamie shrugged, “And while I’ll admit I’m not the biggest fan of history… I don’t mind learning about weapons and stuff, and The Royal Armouries is a museum dedicated to weapons… and I think that’s pretty cool,” She admitted.

They had been walking around the museum for around twenty minutes now, and if Jamie were being honest, had she known it would be this crowded, she would have definitely taken Dani elsewhere that day to take her mind off of things. Dani narrowed her eyes playfully, “Jamie, did you bring me here to kill me?” Dani joked, “You’ve been pretty excited about a lot of these weapons… I gotta say it’s slightly worrying…”

Jamie nodded her head, “Yeah, because if I were gonna kill you I’d pick a crowded museum in the middle of the city… on a Saturday…” She chuckled, “I told you, this is about taking your mind off all that talk about the future… you seemed super stressed after the call with your mum and I figured what better way to take your mind off the future than for us to focus on the past.”

“I guess,” Dani smiled.

“Are you not enjoying it?” Jamie asked, turning her head to face the blonde as she came to a stop in front of a collection of weapons, “I mean, I can find somewhere else for us to go?” She offered, “Leeds doesn’t have too much to offer, but I’m sure I can find something.”

Dani shook her head, “No… no, I am I’m enjoying it,” She replied, “I guess, it was just unexpected that you’d bring me somewhere like this,” She admitted, “I don’t think anyone has ever brought me to a museum full of weapons before,” She smiled.

“Yeah well, I guess I am just in a class of my own when it comes to impressing women… it’s something I pride myself on… I like to give a girl an unforgettable experience,” Jamie watched Dani carefully, a small smile tugging at her lips when the blonde turned to face her, trying her hardest to fight a smile of her own.

“Unforgettable?” Dani asked.

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, I almost guarantee it,” She smiled as they came to a stop in front of a selection of random items, ranging from a small pistol, a bullet mold, a book of prayers, to some garlic paste, “What do you think this was used for?” Jamie asked, taking in the wide range of objects sitting in front of them. 

“That’s a Vampire Hunting Kit,” Dani informed her casually, “They were made out of 19th-century objects that they thought would help ward vampires away… y'know, like garlic, rosary beads, a crucifix…" She explained pointing to each of the items, "I mean it was all very superstitious…”

Jamie quirked her eyebrow at the blonde and turned her head to face her slowly, “Erm, how the fuck do you know that?” She asked, watching Dani carefully.

“Because I just read it,” Dani admitted with a small smile pointing at the small sign in front of them, if Jamie was being honest, she had been far too distracted by Dani to realise there was even a sign explaining what all this stuff was. She was finding herself increasingly more distracted by Dani every time she was around her. 

“Oh… yeah… that helps…” Jamie replied, nodding her head slowly, “Was starting to think you knew a little too much about supernatural beings then… was gonna start asking you some serious questions about how long you’d been 17 for… of course… if you were part of the supernatural that would explain how fit you are…”

Dani chuckled and shook her head slowly, “What is this some sort of _Twilight_ fantasy of yours?”

Jamie screwed her face up slightly, “And just like that you’ve knocked some marks of your hotness level,” She joked, “Talking about _Twilight_ … I was thinking more Dracula… Van Helsing… not _Twilight_ …”

Dani opened her mouth to say something, before a voice coming from behind Jamie cut her off, “Hey… are you two okay over here?” The woman asked as she stood grinning brightly at the two of them, her eyes lingering a little too long on Jamie for her liking. If she had to guess, she’d have put this girl at a little older than she and Dani, she had brightly dyed green hair and brown eyes, and at one time, Jamie would have seen her as an all too attractive girl, but as she looked to Dani, and back to this girl, she paled in comparison.

“Uh, yeah, we’re fine thanks…” Jamie nodded.

“I’m Stevie, I just overheard you talking about the vampire killing kit and the supernatural and honestly, this is my favorite part of the museum, I’m happy they placed me in this section for work today…” She beamed, “Are you enjoying the gallery?” She asked, turning her attention to Dani.

“Yeah, it’s my first time here, it’s really interesting,” She smiled.

“Huh, American,” Stevie mused before turning her attention back to Jamie, “And what about you… are you enjoying it?”

Jamie opened her mouth to reply before Dani cut her off, “Oh she is,” She said brightly, “She is so excited… she just can’t hide it… she’s about to lose control… but I think she likes it," Jamie widened her eyes at the blonde and shook her head slowly, trying her hardest not to laugh, as she opened her mouth to reply and answer Stevie in a more serious manner, the green-haired woman launched into an all too enthusiastic story about the myths and legends of vampires and vampire hunters.

Grabbing Jamie by the arm and showering her some of the weapons on offer in the room, Jamie looked over her shoulder to see Dani stood in the same spot with a hand over her mouth as she tried to silence her laughter, Jamie shook her head again and smiled before mouthing _you knob_ to the blonde woman, with no real hint of annoyance or malice on her face, and when Jamie saw Dani smile softly, and mouth back a feeble apology, she knew Dani could tell she wasn't annoyed, and she could tell that Dani wasn't all that sorry by what she had done. 

* * *

After the day she’d had with Dani, she was now more certain than ever that she had never been so into someone else in her life; she had spent two weeks with the blonde living in her home, had spent a full week with her at school, and had spent the entire day alone with the blonde in a busy museum, and she was still to find something she didn’t like about Dani.

Which was starting to feel like an impossible task to her.

Usually, by now, Jamie had found at least one thing that she didn’t like about another person, something that would make her feel a little disappointed, or would take away her attraction completely, or at the very least something that she would like a person in spite of. But with Dani, there was nothing like that. In fact, with Dani, it was quite the opposite, everything about Dani only seemed to make Jamie like her more. Never before had she been so attracted to another person, both emotionally and physically. 

Even when Dani had made a terrible joke at the museum and the joke had backfired terrible, leaving Jamie to listen to Stevie's boring story about 19th-century weaponry, and all the myths and legends on vampires, she had kept glancing at Dani, and couldn't help but smile every time she saw the look of amusement on the blonde's face, a look that if Jamie was being honest, had made her heart skip several beats. 

“Thank you for today, I had a really great time,” Dani smiled as she and Jamie made their way into the living, “I think I _really_ needed something like that to take my mind off of things with my mom and it worked... so, just thank you." 

“You don’t need to thank me at all,” Jamie shook her head slowly, “I’m just glad that I was able to offer you my services,” She joked, a small smirk pulling at her lips, she opened her mouth to say something before Dennis appeared seemingly out of nowhere. 

“You’d better not be offering your services to people in this house, that’s the last thing I need,” He warned Jamie with a small smile as he walked into the living room, looking slightly frazzled. 

“I was only offering them to Dani to be fair,” She replied holding her hands up, feigning innocence.

“Oh, is that all?” He asked sardonically, “Listen, Jamie, love I need to ask you for a favour,” He sighed, “Is there any chance at all you can watch Mikey for me for a couple of hours, I’ve got to run out and get some stuff sorted for work on Monday.”

Jamie nodded her head, “Yeah, sure… is he upstairs?” She asked.

Dennis nodded his head, “Yeah, he has been most of the day, he’s got a mate over at the minute too… Miles, I think he said from school… they’re on the PlayStation or something, I don't know… I promise I’ll be right back…”

“Yeah, just take as long as you need, I’m not going anywhere.”

“You’re a star… I’ll see you soon,” He thanked her quickly before rushing around to pull in his jacket, grab his keys, and leave the house, all but running to his truck, as Jamie saw his truck pull out of the drive she turned to Dani.

“Sorry, we’ve been landed with babysitting duty, of course, if you wanna go and find something to do that’s totally fine?” Jamie offered.

Dani shook her head slowly, moving around to the couch, and placing her phone on the table as she sat down, “No I’ll keep you company,” She replied, “It’s only fair I offer my services to you now since you so graciously offered your services to me.”

“Oh yeah?” Jamie said, as she came to join Dani and the small couch, putting hardly any space between them, “And just what services does Dani Clayton have to offer me?” She asked, her tone suggestive as a smirk spread across her lips.

“Uh, nothing like that… I can assure you,” Dani replied with a small chuckle.

“Funny… I didn’t mention any kind of services… so just what were you thinking?” Jamie challenged with a small smirk.

Dani shook her head slowly, “I’m gonna go get a drink,” Dani smiled, pushing herself up from the sofa, and putting space between the two of them. space that Jamie hated, “Do you want me to get you one?”

“Uh, yeah, I’d love a cuppa since you’re offering,” Jamie smiled.

Dani chuckled and nodded her head slowly, “I’ll try but I can’t promise it’ll be any good.”

“Well, you’ve gotta learn sometime,” Jamie shrugged, “You’re gonna be here for a year and if you think we’re gonna keep making you tea while you just sit there looking pretty, you’re wrong…”

Dani rolled her eyes slightly, “Does flirting come this naturally to you with everyone, or am I just special?” She asked, a smile pulling at her lips.

“No, you’re definitely just special…” Jamie smiled, “Why do you not like it?”

Dani shook her head slowly, “I never said that,” She replied before leaving the room, no sooner had the blonde left her line of sight than Dani’s phone was buzzing across the table, screen faced down, as usual, “Poppins, your phone’s ringing,” Jamie called to her.

“Who is it?”

Jamie grabbed Dani’s phone from the table and stared at the name on the screen, her heart sinking ever so slightly at what she saw, “Uh, it’s someone called Eddie,” She called back, “He’s got a little heart next to his name,” Not even a second later Dani was bursting into the room, paler than Jamie had ever seen her, "Eddie?" She asked, waiting for Dani to say something else, waiting for Dani to give her more information. 

"Yeah he's my..." She trailed off and looked anywhere but at Jamie.

She didn't need any more information than that, Jamie was all too sure she knew who Eddie was and suddenly, her throat felt tight, “You might wanna call him back, yeah?” She threw the phone to Dani before she walked past her, heading up the stairs to her room without another word. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if anyone will be interested or not, but I have decided to start a Tumblr that is linked to this account because there is no messaging feature on Archive which I think sucks!! Feel free to come and check it out, or even just to say hi, or ask any questions you might have about this fic or my other fic Stop Me From Falling, or just for a chat about our favourite 80s lesbian couple. My tumbrl is colour-outside-the-liness . tumblr. com (it's a secondary account so unfortunately, I won't be able to follow anyone back on that account)


	11. Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to everyone who has interacted with this fic in some way or another, be that bookmarks, kudos, comments, and/ or subscriptions it all means so much to me and I appreciate it all so much!! THANK YOU!! 
> 
> Before this chapter starts I just wanna give a bit of a trigger warning again for some internalised homophobia and the use of the 'd' slur in this chapter. I know some people really don't like that word and I just want to give a warning before it starts, although it is Jamie that used the word when talking about herself 
> 
> I promised myself this was going to be a short chapter and then I ended up actually writing over 7k words so I'm starting to think I have a problem... also the response I got on the last chapter was like nothing I could have imagined!! I am sorry for the angst and the drama but hopefully, this chapter will make up for that a little!! I hope you're all okay with a lot of dialogue because there is a huge chunk of it in this chapter, in fact, this chapter is mainly just one big conversation between Dani and Jamie!! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter and thank you once again for all your comments, kudos, bookmarks, and/ or subscriptions

**Ten**

_“_ _Well, that’s just fucking great,” Jamie said sardonically, “I go on_ one _date with_ one _person and I’m the school slag and apparently I’m contagious,” She shook her head slowly, “Have people really got nothing better to do than make shit up about me?”_

 _“I mean… to be fair no one actually used the word_ contagious _,” Rebecca reasoned, trying her hardest to make the situation a little better. Under different circumstances, Jamie might have appreciated it more, she might have been able to muster a smile at the other girl, but right now all she could think about were the lies and rumours that seemed to follow her everywhere._

 _“Oh, well if they never actually used the word_ contagious, _I suppose that makes it all okay,” She replied dryly, “Come on Rebecca, it doesn’t make any of this better… we all know what people think about me… what they’ve thought about me for a while now…”_

_“Yeah, but hardly any of it’s true,” Rebecca replied, shaking her head slowly, “You know most of it is just lies and people being bored… so why let it bother you so much?” She asked, her dark eyebrows furrowing._

_“Because I can’t stand liars… I especially can’t stand it when they lie about me… if I was doing half the shit people say I am then it wouldn’t hurt me as much… I’d hold my head high and admit I was doing it… but I am so sick of all the rumours and lies about me sleeping with anything with a pulse… okay, I’ve slept with a few people and yeah I’ve slept with guys when I thought I was straight and now I’ve slept with a couple of girls too… but I really haven’t slept with that many people and—” She cut herself off from talking and sighed._

_For years, Jamie had heard people calling her a whore, that or she'd had to deal with them comparing her to her mother, she'd had to deal with those things far more often than she ever should, and far more often than she would've liked. All her life she'd heard scathing comments about all the ways she was like the other woman, about how they'd definitely picked the right middle name for her, how she looked so much like her mother, and how her likeness got more and more vivid with each passing year._

_She hated it._

_Anyone else being told they were like their mum or their dad would maybe see it as a compliment, or just any casual comment, but for Jamie, it never felt that way, the way it would be said through a laugh, or how someone would turn their nose up when looking at her or talking about her, she had a hard time seeing it as anything other than an insult, and she supposed, that when many people said it about her, that's exactly how they meant it._

_There was, however, one person, she never minded comparing her to her mother, and that was her dad, whenever he did it, there was always a softness there, done more out of love and affection than anything else, even as she asked him,_ is that a bad thing? _As she had so many times in the past, he would always shake his head and tell her that no, it wasn't a bad thing at all._

_Whenever her dad said she was like her mother, it was always said with a fond smile and soft voice, and sometimes when he said it, Jamie was able to forget about the negative things her mother had done. She was able to forget about her cheating and walking out on them and focus on the good times and while there hadn’t been many of those, Jamie could remember some. She liked to think, she was like her mother in the best ways, in the ways that had made her so charming at one time in her life._

_"I know it's hard... but, Jamie... you have to try and not let stuff like this bother you... the more it hurts you the more people are going to do it," Rebecca said with a soft sigh, "If you don't let it bother you, then everyone saying this stuff about you is just saying it into the wind, and when they all sit there laughing, they won't be laughing at you because it won't hurt you... so really, they'll just be sat laughing at nothing like the idiots they are..."_

_Jamie knew that Rebecca was right and for the most part she did try and live her life that way, navigating around the school and the village, like nothing bothered her, like no one and nothing could ever touch her. But there were some days, that no matter how much Jamie didn't want to admit it, their words hurt her, they cut her deep and left her wondering just what_ she _had ever done wrong in her life to make people act this way._

_Jamie sighed and nodded her head slowly, "I know," She admitted, "It's just hard sometimes..." She shrugged her shoulders, "I can't wait to be away from this place..." She shook her head slowly, "I can't wait to get away from here and live somewhere where people don;t lool and me and see a mini Louise Taylor... just another slag..." She turned her mouth down slightly, "Seriously, it'll be a grand day when I don't have people belittling me and lying about me constantly."_

_Jamie hated lies, she hated liars too, and Horsforth was filled with plenty of both of them. Jamie couldn’t wait for the day she could leave that town and never look back, just like Denny had…_

_…Just like her mother had._

* * *

She hated liars, _hated_ them; lies seemed to have a way of following her. Through every stage of her life that she could actively remember lies had played a crucial part in it. Lies had been part of the very reason her family had broken down when she was so young, lies about herself and her family had led to her being bullied for most of her life. Lies had also led to her having quite the reputation around town, just as her mother had. Rumours about Jamie seemed to make their way around everyone.

Of course, these rumours seemed to be getting more and more outlandish each and every day. Ever since she lost her virginity to Ben Sharp at 16 people had loved to focus on her love life, spreading rumour after rumour about just how many people she had slept with, of course, as more boys were added to the short list, the more people exaggerated about her sexploitations. Then when she came out, the rumours and lies seemed to get more frequent, as did the scathing comments and harsh jokes.

It seemed, that no matter what Jamie did, no matter how much she tried to keep her head down and keep to herself, people would still find a way to lie about her and spread more rumours.

And once again, Jamie had found herself in the middle of another lie, only this time the lie hadn’t involved her, and this time the lie had left her feeling more humiliated, confused, and (as much as she didn’t want to admit it) more hurt than any of the others had. Jamie would never understand what led people to lie, she herself had always been an honest person, brutally honest, and perhaps too honest for her own good sometimes, or at least that’s what her dad had always told her. She had lost count of the number of times he had told her that her honesty would probably get her into a world of trouble one day.

But Jamie had always figured that getting in trouble for the truth was infinitely better than being caught in a lie.

Just like Dani had been caught in a lie after two weeks.

Jamie couldn’t understand why Dani had felt the need to lie for so long, especially about something as trivial as having a boyfriend, or more to the point, why Dani had felt the need to just never mention him at all. It certainly struck her as odd, everyone else she knew never shut up about their partners, especially Rebecca, whenever she was with Jamie and Hannah, and the three of them were having their girls' nights, conversations would always make their way back to Peter, no matter how many times Hannah and Jamie tried to change the subject. Even Hannah, while not strictly in a relationship with Owen, would still talk about her crush on the man over and over again,

Jamie found it strange that she had never even heard the name _Eddie_ in passing. Especially with all the time she spent with Dani, ever since picking her up from the airport, she'd had countless conversations with her, had spent many hours hanging out in her room or Dani's watching movies or just having mindless chatter, but never one single time, had she heard _that_ name. 

While she knew that she shouldn’t (couldn’t) realistically be mad over some girl that she’d only just met having a boyfriend, that didn’t stop the overwhelming number of emotions that pulsed through every vein in her body. Not only did she feel stupid for the amount of flirting she had done with Dani over the past two weeks, but she also felt hurt. Hurt that the woman she liked, someone who she had started to feel like she could trust, had lied to her for the duration of the weeks that she had known her.

It had all left Jamie wondering just how much had Dani lied about?

Just how much of the _real_ Dani Clayton had Jamie had the fortune of seeing?

This, right here, was exactly why Jamie rarely allowed herself to develop any feelings for anyone. Every time she did, something would happen. Something would come along and ruin everything, and just when she had felt like maybe Dani had no flaws about her whatsoever, here was a big one.

Dani had lied to her. In all the times that she and Jamie had flirted, in all the times they had shared playful banter and suggestive comments that seemingly pushed their _friendship_ further and further into the lines of something more, the blonde had never mentioned that she wasn't available, she'd never tried to stop Jamie from making the comments that she had, she'd never stopped herself from making those same types of comments back, even if she probably should have. Dani had a boyfriend, and that was something that Jamie was still trying to come to terms with. 

Jamie had never envisioned herself being so into someone that was so wildly unattainable, it had certainly never happened to her before. Yet here she was, with the world's biggest crush on someone she knew she couldn't have and if she was being completely honest, she wasn’t entire sure how she was going to get over it. Even as anger and hurt coursed through her body, she _liked_ Dani, and she knew that she couldn’t very well deny it.

* * *

Dani had never felt so torn between two choices before in her life; she knew she could either call Eddie back, and talk to him for the first time that day since they had exchanged their obligatory good morning texts, or she could go and speak to Jamie about what she had seen.

As much as she knew she shouldn’t be feeling that way, she knew which option she wanted more, and that was the option that involved _Jamie_.

All she could think about was trying to make things right with the other woman, she hated that Jamie had walked away from her without giving her the chance to explain who Eddie was, or why she had never even mentioned him before. She definitely hadn't wanted Jamie to find out this way, if she was being honest, Dani wasn't sure how or if she would have liked Jamie to find out about Eddie, after keeping him a secret for so long. The look Jamie had given her, paired with the tone of voice she had used when suggesting she call Eddie back stuck out in her mind and made her stomach clench. 

Everything about this situation left Dani feeling an overwhelming about of disappointment, especially after the day they'd shared. The more time she spent with Jamie, the more the butterflies seemed to flap around in her stomach, the more she realised just how much there was to like about Jamie; she was confident, kind, funny, smart, and the more she realised all these things about the other woman the more time she wanted to spend around her. 

And now she couldn't help but wonder if she had ruined any chances she had of even being Jamie's friend. She had never expected Jamie to look so annoyed around her, ever since they'd met Jamie had looked at her in a way that had made her heart pound heavily in her chest, had left her with butterflies in her stomach and feeling excited and nervous at the same time. It had been a feeling that Dani had started to enjoy all too much. 

But the way Jamie had looked at her moments ago had been so different to her usually soft eyes and kind smile, or the slight smirk she would use when she would use whenever she threw suggestive comments Dani's way, it had been a look of hurt, mixed with confusion, and her tone of voice had been so dry and void of any emotion Dani usually heard in it, and it had left Dani feeling dejected. A feeling she had never once thought she would experience around Jamie. 

She quickly typed out a message to Eddie, explaining that she was busy and would speak to him later before she locked her phone and slipped it into the front pocket of her jeans. 

Dani knew she had to make this right, she knew that she had to talk to Jamie and work things out between them however she could, as long as Jamie was willing to hear her out that was. All Dani could do now was hope that Jamie would talk to her so she could try and salvage what she could of their _friendship._

If that was even the right word to use for whatever she and Jamie were. 

* * *

As she lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling, fiddling with her phone, she tried to remove the feeling of disappointment from her system, she knew that she couldn’t really be mad with Dani, or the fact that she apparently had a boyfriend, after all, other than some flirty comments, and a feeling that they might be able to be something more, nothing had really happened between them.

Jamie knew that.

But that didn’t change the way she had felt when she had seen _that_ name on Dani’s phone with that stupid little heart next to it.

She had never imagined that one small, cartoon heart could make her feel so disappointed, and yet that was the only thing she could think of to describe how she currently felt, _disappointed_.

Disappointed in Dani, for keeping something like this from her.

Disappointed in herself for growing so attached and developing such strong feelings of attraction for the other woman in such a short space of time, when Jamie liked to make a habit of not catching feelings for anyone.

And above all else, she felt disappointed at the fact that nothing had happened between them, and now, the chances of anything _ever_ happening between them were slim to none.

Had she known Dani had a boyfriend from the beginning, she might have been able to put some space between the two of them, might have been able to remind herself over and over again that Dani was taken, and was definitely not a viable option as anything more than a friend. Of course, she had tried to remind herself of that in terms of the promise she had made with her dad all those months earlier, of course the more time she spent with Dani, the easier it had been to forget all about that promise and push it from her mind.

But now, she was stuck with her feelings for the blonde knowing she couldn’t act on them, and that if she did, it would mean something terrible, it could potentially end a relationship and it could ruin her friendship with Dani and as much as she would love to know what it would be like to be with Dani, what it would feel like to kiss her, she knew that being Dani’s friend was better than nothing at all. No matter how much it hurt to think of Dani with someone else, and to think of Dani hiding that from her, when she had finally started to feel like Dani was someone she could trust.

She heard the sound of slightly heavy and fast paced footsteps heading to her door, and pushed herself up into a sitting position, her dad definitely wasn’t due home yet, and she was almost positive that Mikey would never be able to move fast enough to create those footsteps even if his life depended on it.

She sat for a moment, as the air around her seemed to fall silent once more, before there was a light knock on her door, followed by the sound of someone taking a deep breath.

“Jamie… can we talk?”

Dani’s voice sounded far quieter than Jamie had ever heard it.

“I don’t know,” Jamie replied, “I think there’s someone else waiting to talk to you, in’t there?” She asked, as soon as the words left her mouth, she regretted them, she knew Dani was trying to do the right thing.

“… I guess…” Dani sighed, “But that doesn’t mean I _want_ to talk to them,” She informed her, “I wanna talk to you Jamie, and I guess I can’t make you talk to me… and it’s fine if you don’t want to… but just know I’ll be around when you do want to talk to me… and until then, I guess I’ll just leave this out here for you…”

The way she trailed off from her sentence made Jamie smile slightly, she knew it was a thinly veiled attempt to get Jamie to open the door while she was still there and Jamie would be lying if she said it hadn’t been effective. She pushed herself up from her bed and made her way to the door trying to force the most nutual expression that she could onto her face, Dani didn’t need to see how much the small action had made her smile.

Dani didn’t need to know the effect she had on Jamie at all.

Especially not now that effect didn’t matter in the slightest.

It didn’t matter how Dani made Jamie feel, or how Jamie felt about her, all that mattered now was that Dani had a boyfriend and that the two of them had been playing a dangerous game, a game Jamie hadn’t wanted to end any time soon. A game that if she was being entirely honest with herself, she still didn’t want to end.

She quickly shook the last thought from her mind before she pulled open her bedroom door to see Dani standing there, holding two mugs in her hand, having made no attempt to move at all.

“What’s all this about then?” Jamie asked nodding to the mugs.

“I, uh, made you some tea… thought it could be a peace offering?” She gave Jamie a soft smile holding up the mug to her, “You said you wanted one earlier, I don’t know if you still do or not,” She shrugged, “But it’s the thought that counts, right?”

As much as Jamie hated to admit it, in that moment, Dani looked entirely too cute, and any resolve she’d had to ignore the other woman seemed to disappear when took in that small smile, the look in her too blue eyes, and the sound of her voice as she tried to make things right.

She was well and truly under Dani Clayton’s spell.

“So what?” Jamie shrugged, “You thought you’d leave me to cool off for five minutes and make me a cuppa and everything would just be okay?” She asked a small smirk tugging at her lips, “Poppins, do you really think I’m that easy?” She teased.

“No,” Dani replied quickly, Jamie could hear the panic in her voice, she rolled her eyes when Jamie gave her a disbelieving look, “Okay… maybe… yeah,” She admitted, “But about the tea thing… not you being easy,” She clarified shaking her head slowly, “I don’t like what just happened downstairs, that’s not how I wanted this day to end.”

“And how did this day end?” Jamie asked, wondering if Dani felt the same way she did about the sudden change in events.

“Wrong…” Dani scoffed with a small roll of her eyes, “I’d had such an amazing time with you today, and I really appreciate what you did for me, like, more than you’ll ever know… no one has ever done _anything_ like that for me… and…” She took a deep breath, and Jamie could see she was trying to calm herself down before approaching the topic at hand, “So I really wanna talk to you about what happened afterward… y’know… just now… can we do that?” She asked, “Can we talk?” 

Jamie nodded her head slowly before stepping to the side and allowing Dani into her room, closing the door behind her with a quiet click, she turned to face Dani, taking one of the mugs from her, and made her way over to her bed, sitting down slowly and looking up at the blonde.

“Right… you’re in here… what do you have to say?”

“The phone call just now… that was my boyfriend… and I know that came out of the blue and I should have told you… and I’m sorry that I didn’t… but…” She trailed off as she tried to find the right words and Jamie could see the worry behind her eyes.

Even as her own heart sank at the sound of the word _boyfriend_ falling from Dani’s lips, she couldn’t help but feel a certain sense of empathy for the blonde, her eyes seemed to look anywhere but at Jamie, as she struggled to find the words.

“Can I ask why you didn’t tell me?” Jamie asked her voice quiet, “I mean, it’s not like you didn’t have the opportunity to tell me… in fact, as far as I’m concerned you had a few chances.”

“I did,” Dani admitted, “And I should have told you… it’s something I shouldn’t have felt the need to hide… and honestly, the reason that I did doesn’t even make sense to me… so I don’t really expect it to make sense to you… but… I guess I was worried that if you knew about him… it would change how you were with me… and I didn’t want that to change because I liked it… maybe more than I should…”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “You’re right… I really don’t get that…” She admitted, “I just thought we were really starting to get to know each other… to open up to each other… and I thought we were friends but what? You just liked the attention I gave you? That’s why you talked to me?”

Dani shook her head, “No,” She replied quickly, “No that’s not _why_ I talked to you… we are friends, Jamie, and I actually enjoy your company and I like who you are as a person… yeah the flirting made me feel good but that’s not why I talked to you… I was stupid… okay… really stupid and I should have told you… but I can’t change the past, all I can do now is apologise and hope that I can make this right… please don’t be mad at me because I don’t think I can stand the thought of that…”

She watched Dani carefully, taking in the look on her face, her blue eyes seemingly welling up at the thought of Jamie being mad with her, at the thought of Jamie not talking to her anymore and she could feel her heartbreaking slightly.

“I’m not mad at you,” Jamie shook her head slowly, “I guess… more than anything… I was hurt and confused by what I saw… I thought I could trust you… y’know you’ve defended me when you didn’t need to… you haven’t judged me when I’ve told you stuff other people did judge me for… like being a lesbian and making a bet about sleeping with a girl… so I guess… I was hurt that, the person who has been so accepting of me and all the shit people say about me… has also lied to me for weeks and couldn't tell me something as simple as this...” She shrugged, "I thought we could trust each other." 

"I do trust you... and you can trust me," Dani nodded her head slowly, "I know that it might not feel like it right now... but you can... and I know that I’ve probably ruined my chances of ever having a close friendship with you but—”

“You haven’t ruined your chances of _anything_ …” Jamie said, hating herself for the use of the word _anything_ when in reality all she should be thinking about was a platonic friendship with Dani, though she knew all too well, that should Dani ever want more, she would be more than willing to give her what she wanted.

“No?” Dani asked, her eyes brightening up a little at Jamie's words.

“No,” She replied, “I just don’t like being lied to, Dani… I mean, I don’t think anyone does… so can we make a deal that from here on out that we’ll just be honest with each other… like, no matter what… we’ll talk about stuff and just be honest?”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah… I’d really like that…” She replied with a small smile, “And I promise, I won’t ever lie to you again…”

“Okay… in that case, I do have some questions,” Jamie sighed.

“Yeah, sure ask me anything.”

“Just how long have you been with this boyfriend of yours then?”

“A few years,” Dani admitted, and Jamie felt her heart sink slightly at the admission of just how long she and Eddie had been an item, “We started out as friends… and I sort of dared him to kiss me one day… and I guess… from there we just became a couple… he’s… I guess he’s my best friend and has been since our first day of kindergarten.”

“So, it’s not a new thing then?”

Dani shook her head slowly, “No, it’s not… and I feel really bad about everything… I feel bad about hiding this from you… I feel bad for the flirting we’ve done because if Eddie knew some of the stuff I said… or suggested… I don’t think he’d like it…”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “No, I can’t imagine he would… shit he’d probably hate me for some of the stuff I’ve said to you… honestly, starting to feel that way about myself a little bit.”

“No, I don’t want you to feel that way… you haven’t done anything wrong… you were just flirting with me… yeah, I shouldn’t have allowed it and I shouldn’t have flirted back… but you didn’t know I had a boyfriend… so this isn’t your fault… at all… okay?”

Jamie nodded her head slowly, “Yeah…okay…” She replied, “So uh, how does he feel about you being out here alone… I mean… and I’m sorry to be doing this again but… I don’t know how I’d feel if I had a girlfriend like you and she was thousands of miles away from me…”

Dani smiled and rolled her eyes, “Thank you… but uh… he’s actually in England too, right now, he’s—”

“He’s the friend in Birmingham, isn’t he?” Jamie asked.

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah… which I know makes this worse because I have mentioned him… I just never mentioned what he actually was to me and I never corrected you when you called him a friend… which I should have…”

“Is he the one that calls you all the time?”

“Some of the time, yeah… well actually most of the time… he’s not having the best time out here… like, at all…” She divulged, “And I think that might partly be my fault because I have been forgetting about him whenever I spend time with you…”

“Aren’t we supposed to be avoiding you saying things like that to me, Poppins?” She asked with a small smirk, not being able to resist making a joke.

“I’m being serious,” Dani replied, “You wanted honesty, I’m giving you it… when I am around you…” She shrugged, “I can’t explain it… so please don’t try and make me… all I can say is… I have a lot of fun with you Jamie… and I guess…” She shrugged her shoulders again, stopping herself from talking.

Jamie could see it was hard for her to find the words to say… whatever it was that she had to say, and she wasn’t about to try and force her to say something, Jamie would never do that.

But there was something in the way that Dani looked at her, that told Jamie there was more to the situation than what could be seen at face value.

“I have a lot of fun with you too…” Jamie admitted, “Like today… I had _a lot_ of fun today… which brings me to my next question,” She sighed, “That phone call… the one that made you sad and all stressed out… was that him?” She asked.

She could feel a small amount of anger bubbling up inside of her at the thought of this _Eddie_ doing anything to upset Dani. While she hadn’t known her long, Jamie was damn sure that Dani deserved better treatment than that.

Dani shook her head slowly, “No,” She admitted, “No, that was my mom… and when I told you that earlier that was the truth… we got talking about both Eddie and I being out here… and how he really wants to see if he can get transferred to Leeds and live with someone else… I said that I didn’t want him to do that… mainly because I didn’t want you to find out about him that way… but also because I want to know what life is like away from him… I’ve had him by my side for as long as I can remember and I wanna know who I am away from being Dani _and_ Eddie…” She admitted, “I wanna trying being _Dani_ and _Eddie_ for a while… and when I said that… my mom just went on this tirade about my future and it stressed me out…”

“So, what you told me was partly the truth then?” Jamie asked, “I mean, you did tell me she’d stressed you out of the future… just not in what way.”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah… I really didn’t wanna lie to you… ever… even though that's exactly what I've done.”

“That’s okay… I’m just really glad I was actually helping you feel better after a conversation with your mum and not after a fight with your boyfriend… would really have hated to make myself look like a total arse in front of you…”

Dani smiled slightly and shook her head, “You’ve never made yourself look like an ass… I don’t think that’s possible…” She admitted, and Jamie couldn’t help the smile that made its way to her face, “And as I said, no one has ever done what you did for me today… like, yeah, Eddie has done nice things… but a museum all about weapons… that’s pretty special…” She shrugged.

“Yeah well, thought a girl like you could use something special,” She replied, before clearing her throat and shaking her head slightly, trying her hardest to ignore the small smile on Dani’s face and the blush that slowly crept into her cheeks, “So… about this boyfriend then… am I the last to know about him?”

“No… actually you’re the first to know,” She admitted with a guilty smile, “I didn’t tell anyone… I didn’t want anyone else to know about him because of how we are… or how we were with each other… I didn’t want any of them telling you… because I was worried you’d change how you acted with me…”

“Yeah… yeah, I might’ve changed how I was with you,” Jamie replied nodding her head slowly, though as she said the words, she wasn’t entirely sure she meant them at all, “So uh, Eddie… does he know about all of us then?”

Dani nodded, “Yeah, he does… he uh, knows more about you and how much time we spend together… he doesn’t know how you talk to me…” She rolled her eyes and gave a small, breath chuckle, “Or how I talk back to you… I figured that he didn’t need to know that… but he does know that we spend _a lot_ of time together… and he knows we went out today…”

“So, you can be honest with someone,” Jamie commented, the words flying out of her mouth before she had even been able to stop them, she took in the look of hurt on Dani’s face and a wave of guilt washed over her, “Look I am really sorry I said that,” She sighed, “It was really uncalled for… and you don’t deserve it…”

Dani shook her head slowly, “No I think I might have deserved it a little… I should have been honest with you… I shouldn’t have let you flirt with me the way I did… I shouldn’t have flirted back… so I’m sorry about all of this.”

“Apology accepted…” Jamie replied, she went to take a sip of her tea before looking back at Dani and lowering the cup once more, “Have you spoken to your boyfriend yet?” She asked, nodding at the phone in the front pocket of Dani’s jeans,

Dani shook her head slowly, “No,” She admitted, “I told him I was busy, I really wanted to make sure you were okay, Jamie, I really hated how you walked away from me and I felt so bad I had to talk to you… I really hated how it ended…”

“I’m sorry I walked away from you,” Jamie said, “I realise I’m not totally innocent in this either… I should have let you explain to me downstairs… but I was really hurt, and so confused and… I guess I needed a little bit of space to clear my head…and walking away from you without giving you chance to explain gave me a little bit of clarity and room to think but it didn’t offer you the same… so…”

“Can I ask, why you were so hurt?” Dani asked, her voice soft, “You don’t have to tell me… but if it’s something I can fix, I’d like to know…”

Jamie looked down at her feet, her heart hammering in her chest, she thought about her options, how she could make something up and save herself the embarrassment, but then again, if she did that, she’d be a liar too, and that was something that Jamie had never been.

She took a deep breath before speaking again, “I guess, in the spirit of being honest… I was hurt because I like you,” She admitted, “I like you more than I thought I would and I like you in a way that I didn't think I would…” She turned her mouth down slightly as she watched Dani, a slight look of wonder and shock on her face, mixed with something else, something that Jamie couldn’t detect, but it made her stomach knot slightly, “I’m sorry if that makes you uncomfortable and I get it if you wanna take a step back and—”

“It doesn’t make me uncomfortable,” Dani replied quickly, maybe a little too quickly, “I mean I’m a little shocked… I always thought the flirting was more playful… but I’m not uncomfortable,” She replied, taking a little more time to form the words, her breathing slightly ragged, “… and I don’t wanna take a step back…”

“You’re not uncomfortable?” She asked, “Because, if you are you can tell me… remember… we’re trying the whole honesty thing now… and I don’t know, Poppins, you look slightly taken aback by what I’ve just told you…" Jamie could feel her heart clenching slightly at the thought of ruining things with Dani, especially when it seemed like they might actually be able to get back on track of where they had been headed before.

If Dani did need to take a step back, she would understand and respect that, she would just rather hear it now than find out further down the line that something she had done had made Dani uncomfortable, especially when that was the furthest thing from what she wanted.

Dani shook her head, “No…” She replied, still sounding breathless, “It was unexpected that someone _like you_ would ever…” She trailed off, shaking her head slowly, “I guess I just never saw myself as y’know…”

“So, you’re really not worried that the dyke’s gonna do something to you?” She asked with a small chuckle, though she didn’t miss the way Dani seemed to flinch at the use of the slur.

“Don’t say that,” She all but snapped, her jaw tensing slightly, she shook her head slowly, “Please… don’t use that word.”

“Okay… sorry…” Jamie replied, wondering why Dani had such an aversion to the word, most other people she knew never cared when she said it, they would either brush off what she had said or simply laugh along with her, it struck her as a little odd that Dani had seemed so affected by the word, “I won’t say it again,” She promised, “I’m really, really sorry…”

Dani nodded her head slowly, there was a beat of silence before she spoke again, “No, I’m sorry,” She mumbled, moving to sit next to Jamie on the bed, the dark-haired woman turned her head to face her, and gave her a questioning look, “For snapping at you just then… and for hurting you… I didn’t mean for either of those things to happen.”

“That’s okay… uh, the snapping thing is fine, I was in the wrong, I didn’t think you’d care about me using the word… so I’m sorry… and about you hurting me… that’s more on me… I shouldn’t have walked away from you or acted the way I did… I know I had no reason to… I was just being dramatic, I guess… I mean, it’s not like anything actually happened between us…” She said, watching Dani carefully.

The blonde turned her head to face Jamie, her blue eyes soft as they scanned every facet of Jamie’s face, “No… it didn’t…” Dani replied, shaking her head mechanically.

There was something about her tone of voice, something Jamie couldn’t quite put her finger on, that sounded disappointed, wistful almost, she couldn’t tell if that was more wishful thinking on her part than anything else, but still, it made her heart stutter slightly.

“Sooo,” Jamie sighed, trying to remove any thoughts of anything happening between her and Dani from her mind, “I propose a toast,” She said, holding up her mug, “To us always being honest with each other… no matter what… to putting this whole thing behind us… and to us being friends?” She offered.

Dani nodded her head slowly, “To honesty, moving forward, and us being friends,” She agreed with a soft smile, they gently clicked their mugs together before they each took a sip of their tea. Jamie screwed her face up slightly, and spat the tea back into the cup, “Is it bad? I tried my best,” Dani admitted with a slightly sheepish smile.

“Yeah, well I wish you hadn’t bothered,” Jamie joked with a small chuckle, placing the cup on the nightstand by her bed, “But uh, thank you… I do appreciate the effort… even if my face didn’t look like it.”

“That’s just what your face looks like all the time,” Dani joked.

“Y’know Dani, I can go off people really quickly, so you might wanna watch what you’re saying about me,” Jamie teased.

“Yeah, and you might wanna be gentler when you tell someone they're not good at something,” Dani chuckled, “Spitting the tea back into the cup was a low blow… I did warn you it wouldn’t be good if I made one.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you how to make a proper brew at some point.”

“You will?” Dani asked with a small smile.

“Yeah, although I really am signing myself up to teach you a lot of stuff… course I made most of those promises when I thought you were single and that I stood a chance,” She shrugged instantly regretting her words.

“Oh… so you don’t wanna teach me stuff now?” Dani asked with a small smirk, “That was just a ploy to try and win me over?” 

"No..." Jamie shook her head, "There's still an awful lot I wanna teach you, trust me on that one," She replied with a small smirk, "I'm just gonna have to take a lot of topics off that list now," She joked with a small shrug, earning herself a breathy laugh and an eye-roll from Dani. 

* * *

They'd spent the next few hours watching movies in Jamie's room, hanging out as if nothing had ever happened between them, both of them easily moving past the fact that Dani had kept a secret from Jamie for the last two weeks, as they lay on Jamie's bed, having idle conversations about whatever terrible Netflix original movie they had found, Dani's mind would keep wandering away from her, always landing on the same thing.

Jamie liked her.

Of all the things that had been said between them that night, the fact that Jamie liked her might have been her favourite. Never before had she felt so breathless or floored by the simple fact that someone else liked her, even when Eddie had admitted his feelings for her, yes she had been flattered, but it hadn’t felt anywhere near as exhilarating or as exciting as this.

 _Jamie_ liked her.

She liked her, and she had been worried that admitting those feelings would ruin their friendship, and would send Dani running in the other direction, she wondered, how many other people before she had been told about Jamie’s sexuality and had been uncomfortable by it. How happy Jamie had seemed when Dani hadn’t judged her for her sexuality. She thought back to her first day at Horsforth Trinity and All Saints, and how Ellie Jones had tried to warn her away from Jamie, telling her that Jamie would, most likely make a move on her at some point, and just like it had that day the thought made Dani’s stomach flip.

Nerves and excitement exploding through her at the thought of Jamie ever making a move on her, quickly thwarted out by the gut-wrenching realisation that, the chances of that happening, now Jamie knew she had a boyfriend were long gone, and by the realisation that she did have a _boyfriend_ and should most definitely not be feeling that way about anyone else.

Especially not a woman.

That was something she couldn’t and wouldn’t allow herself to get caught up in, she’d done that once before tried to tell her mother that she thought, she might _possibly_ have an attraction to women.

Of course, her mother had been anything but accepting, telling her she was wrong, that she was too young to know what she wanted and that no daughter of hers was going to be a…

She shook the thoughts from her head, not allowing herself to even think about _that_ word, the word Jamie had so casually thrown around with a lilting chuckle.

She hated _that_ word, she could still remember how it sounded in the hushed snarl from her mother, and how it had made her feel like she had done something inherently wrong, like she had done something she should be ashamed of, all because she said she might…

… No.

She _admired_ women, admired their confidence, their soft features, admired pretty much everything there was to admire about them. Of that much, she had been able to convince herself of for almost a year now.

Dani tried to do all she could to clear her mind as she lay in bed that night, trying to focus on anything other than the cacophony of sound rattling around her brain, making her feel a hundred different things.

Relief that she and Jamie had been able to patch things up.

Flattery that someone like Jamie could ever like someone like her.

Dread that maybe she was focusing too hard on the fact that Jamie liked her, and maybe over the fact that she liked it just a bit too much.

She closed her eyes, and took a deep breath in, before letting it out in a slow exhale, imaging releasing all the negatives thoughts, and feelings from her mind as she did so until she was left with one thing running around her mind.

 _I like you more than I thought I would_.

_I like you in a way I didn't think I would._

Jamie’s soft voice paired with that all too endearing and all too alluring accent rang around her mind, that simply admission making her far happier than it should. Far happier than she would be willing to admit out loud; though perhaps, she was willing to admit that much to herself, perhaps, she would allow herself a certain level of honesty.

Jamie liked her, and she _admired_ Jamie, and they were friends with the newfound sentiment of remaining honest with each other and having open communication at all times.

Dani quite liked the idea of that.

_Honesty._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if anyone will be interested or not, but I have decided to start a Tumblr that is linked to this account because there is no messaging feature on Archive which I think sucks!! Feel free to come and check it out, or even just to say hi, or ask any questions you might have about this fic or my other fic Stop Me From Falling, or just for a chat about our favourite 80s lesbian couple. My tumbrl is colour-outside-the-liness . tumblr. com (it's a secondary account so unfortunately, I won't be able to follow anyone back on that account)


	12. Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always a HUGE thank you to everyone who has read this fic so far, and to everyone who had interacted with it in any way!! It all means so much to me!! Thank you for all the comments, kudos, bookmarks, and/ or subscriptions!! I am so happy you're all enjoying this fic!! 
> 
> Not as much angst in this chapter as in the last two but still a little bit for you at the end!!

**Eleven**

_Their girly sleepovers had been some of her favourite nights for as long as she could remember; not only was she able to spend time with other girls her own age, but she also didn’t have to be at home looking after herself and her mother, which, always made a refreshing change for Dani._ _She would always take any chance she had to interact with someone who wasn’t screaming at her or slurring their way through a sentence. Their girls nights provided her with a certain amount of solace that she didn’t even get from spending time with Eddie and his family. She couldn’t even explain why she loved girls’ nights so much. She just knew that she did._

_Their sleepovers were never hosted at Dani's house, they never had been and all of them knew that they never would be; Karen would never allow Dani to have too many friends in the house for too long, her own child had proven to be too much work for her, she couldn't imagine anything worse than having other people's children in the house too. In fact, the one friend Karen did allow in the house, encouraged it even, was Eddie. She even had her limits with him._

_That specific girl's night was being hosted at Tori Watsons's house, Tori was an overly confident, brassy girl who made Dani laugh like no one she had ever known before. They'd met when they were in fourth grade and Tori had transferred from Washington state, her confidence and pretty smile had drawn Dani in immediately and she had felt a sudden need to be her friend, she loved that Tori didn't seem to have a care in the world unlike herself who seemed to be filled with constant worries of parenting both herself and her mother._

_Tori had easily fit into their small group, which consisted of Eddie, herself, and a boy named Kyle who had asked to join Eddie and Dani one recess in first grade and never left them alone, at the time, Tori had seemed like the missing piece to a puzzle and had completed their little foursome, fast becoming Dani's best female friend. It stayed that way, just the four of them, until middle school when Tori and Dani made friends with two other girls (Trudy Cartwright and Josie Dawson), and just as she had with Tori, she had felt the need to be their friend from the second she had met them._

_When Dani set her mind to something, she usually made it happen, and soon, six of them began to spend most of their time together until they became inseparable and you wouldn't see Kyle and Eddie without the four girls with them, or vice versa, at least until girls night, then the four girls would go their own way finally getting the chance to_ _talk about things they knew the boys would never be interested in._

_That's what girls' night was for. That and the unbelievable amount of gossip that Trudy and Josie always seemed to gather, the gossiping had only got better since they started high school, no matter what, Josie and Trudy always seemed to come to girls nights well equipped with gossip on just about anyone regardless of what grade they were in, if there was something to know about them, you could bet that Trudy and Josie would know it._

_However, if there was one thing Dani did hate about girls' night, and there was just the one thing, it was that no matter what, the conversation always seemed to turn to boys; with Dani's three friends always gushing about their budding relationships Tori had started dating Kyle over the summer, and Josie and Trudy had each met a boy within the first month of their freshmen year of high school, (Bryce Shepard and Jeff Roberts) and by proxy, those two boys had joined their little friendship group._

_Now her girls nights were filled with listening to_ _Tori talk about how cute Kyle was, while Josie would talk about how athletic Bryce was and how he was_ definitely _going to be captain of the football team by the time they were seniors, and Turdy never shutting up about just how funny Jeff was._

_While Dani would admit, the three boys were all of those things, it never failed to get to her that she had absolutely no one she felt this way about. She never knew what to say whenever one of them asked her about her crushes, there were only so many times she could say that no one at school had caught her eye before they stopped believing her, and she had been using that same excuse since middle school._

_She knew that it didn't matter how true it was, which it was, there was not one single boy at school that had ever turned her head, she knew she was hitting her limit on the excuse and that soon, she would have to think of another._

_Sometimes, she wondered, what was wrong with her, why hadn’t she ever looked at any of the boys around her and wanted to be with them, why had she never felt the same things her friends did._

_As much as it confused her, it seemed to confuse her friends tenfold._

_All of them were dying for her to get into a relationship like they were, or for her to at least mention a boy_ once _, but as always, Dani had left them all feeling disappointed when she had answered their question about her crush with a shrug of her shoulders and a dismissive one-word reply._

 _"Well, do you know who I think would be good for you?"_ _Tori asked, and Dani already dreaded where this was going, already had a heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach about what Tori was going to say next._

_“Who?” She asked, dreading here one name and one name only, a name she had heard so many times before in this context._

_“Eddie,” She replied with a beaming smile. Just like that, Dani’s fears have been confirmed, “Seriously, you two would be just perfect together,” She gushes, “And I mean literally_ perfect… _don’t you all think that it just makes sense?” She asked, looking around the other three girls, her eyes mainly staying on Dani, waiting for the blonde’s response._

 _“I don’t know…” Dani replied shaking her head slowly._ _She liked Eddie, would go as far as saying she loved him even, she’d been best friends with him ever since their first day of kindergarten. But she had never had a crush on him, had never felt the way about Edmund that everyone expected her to, that everyone said she should._

_“Oh, come on Dani,” Trudy smiled, “You and Eddie both know that you would be great together, you’re both attractive, you’re both nice and smart, and you’re such good friends, it would be so easy for you.”_

_Josie nodded her head in agreement, “Yeah, and think about it this way, you already know so much about each other, there’d be no awkward dating phase, it would be like starting on the fifteenth date… I mean, I was so nervous when I went on a date with Bryce for the first time... but you guys wouldn't have that... it just makes sense for you two to be together... like it made sense for Tori and Kyle to get together."_

_Tori shrugged, “Makes sense to me,” She sighed, “Eddie, he is so into you… and thinks the world of you… seriously, Dani, you’re not gonna find that in many other people… he’d do anything for you, and you can’t deny that.”_

_Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, I know he would,” She replied, and it was true, Dani did know that Edmund would do anything for her, just like she would do anything for him, they were best friends, always had been, and Dani hoped that they always would be._

_But that didn’t mean she wanted to be with him._

_That didn’t mean they should be a couple and would even work as a couple._

_If Dani was being honest with herself, she didn’t think they would make a good couple, she didn’t think they would work together at all. They were friends, and to Dani, that’s all they would ever be._

_"Then what's stopping you? Eddie is the perfect match for you and you know it... what is stopping you, he's cute, he's smart, he's nice... he has everything you could want in a boyfriend."_

_“I don’t think so guys,” She shook her head again, “Yeah, Eddie is cute and he’s so kind and he has been a huge part of my life for so long and—”_

_“All I am hearing are reasons why you should do it,” Trudy chuckled, “Oh come on, it’s so obvious you guys have a crush on each other… why don’t you just go for it… I am sure Eddie would love that…”_

_Tori nodded her head eagerly, “He would, I happen to know that he has the_ biggest _crush on you_.”

_“How do you know that?” Dani asked, her eyebrows furrowing slightly._

_“Because Kyle told me,” Tori shrugged, “And Eddie told Kyle… believe it or not guys talk about their crushes too, and Eddie has the world’s biggest crush on you… he’s already practically in love with you…”_

_“That is so cute!” Josie and Trudy cooed in tandem._

_Dani glanced at them giving them a confused look before turning her head back to Tori, “It’s sweet he feels that way about me… but I just don’t think I feel the same way about him,” She shrugged, “At least, I don’t think I do…” She shrugged, hoping this would be enough to satisfy them._

_“Okay, so you’re not a hundred percent sure?” Josie asked, her smile widening, Dani shook her head slowly giving the other girl a non-verbal response, “You should totally kiss him and see!” She suggested excitedly._

_“Oh my god, you should!” Trudy agreed, “Then you’ll know for sure… and if it all works out that’ll be all four of us with boyfriends, and we’re all best friends and so are they and it all just makes so much sense!”_

_Tori nodded her head in agreement, “You’re doing this Dani… think about it… how amazing would it be to be with your best friend?” She asked._

_“Yeah… maybe…” Dani agreed, nodding her head slowly, “I mean, I guess I could kiss him and see, right?” She asked, “Like, that’s not gonna hurt anybody?”_

_Tori shook her head, “It won’t hurt anyone at all, worst-case scenario it turns out you were right and you don’t like him… but the best-case scenario is that you do like him and then you get a boyfriend.”_

_The word seemed to stab at her, making her feel more uncomfortable than she had ever imagined it would, she had heard them all throw around the word boyfriend before, heck, they had thrown it around multiple times that night._

_But that time, when the word boyfriend was linked to Eddie… was linked to_ her _and Eddie, it made an uncomfortable feeling settle in the pit of her stomach, knotting it up into a tight little ball._

_She’d heard people in the past talking about getting a feeling in the pit of your stomach when thinking about the person you like, a nauseous feeling, an anxious feeling, Dani wondered if this is what they meant, if this feeling right here, is what she was supposed to feel when thinking about Eddie._

_She wondered if perhaps, she could like Edmund like that._

_She figured kissing him and trying didn’t seem like such a bad option._

_Even if she had never thought about herself having a boyfriend, even if she had never wanted one or envisioned herself having one. It couldn’t hurt to try, after all, isn’t a boyfriend exactly what she should want at fifteen?_

* * *

It was Dani’s first _girls’ night_ in England and when Jamie had first approached her with the invitation to go around to Hannah’s house, she had been all too happy to accept, sending Eddie a message once again letting him know she wouldn’t be around that night, before she rushed to get ready, putting way more time and effort into her appearance than she probably should just to spend a night with the girls.

Or more to the point to spend the night with Jamie.

Since finding out about Jamie’s crush on her, she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about it. Hadn’t been able to remove the look on Jamie’s face from her mind as she’d said those words to her.

_I like you more than I thought I would._

_I like you in a way I didn't think I would_.

She had seemed so vulnerable, so worried that Dani was going to back away from her, ridicule her. She knew how that felt, knew how it felt to try and open up to someone only for them to throw it back in your face and make you feel terrible for it.

However, shocked she had been at Jamie’s admission, she would have never wanted to make Jamie feel the way she’d felt when trying to open up to her mother. She had never meant to hurt Jamie in the first place, and she was going to make damn sure that she never intentionally hurt her again.

Especially not now they had their little honesty pact in place.

Now that she and Jamie had promised to be honest with each other, and openly communicate things, she could only imagine it would strengthen their friendship, and after all, that’s what Dani had been most worried about when Jamie had found out about Edmund.

She had been worried that she had ruined her chance to have a friend like Jamie.

The fact that the dark-haired woman had invited her to girls’ night, made her feel a sense of ease she hadn’t felt properly since Jamie saw Eddie’s name on her phone screen.

They drove to Hannah’s house, having mindless chatter over the sound of one of Jamie’s playlists on her phone, though Dani would openly admit she only recognised a handful of the songs that Jamie had played, the music they had listened to hadn’t been all that bad, even if it wasn’t the typical music she would listen to.

“Right so, Hannah’s parents are out,” Jamie explained, “Which is why Girls Night is being held here… but just a warning, we won’t be drinking tonight, because it’s a Sunday, and although I would love to be drinking, Hannah and Rebecca won’t on a school night.”

“And you really felt the need to warn me about that?” Dani asked with a small smile.

Jamie nodded her head, “Yeah, I don’t know what you Yanks get up to on girls’ nights… I’m just letting you know how this one is going to go down… oh and be prepared for lots of talk about Peter Quint… but don’t try and say anything negative about him… Rebecca just won’t have it.”

“Not even about all the times he’s shamelessly hit on me, both when she is and isn’t around?” Dani asked with a sigh.

“Yeah, even that…” Jamie nodded before furrowing her eyebrows, “Wait… he’s hit on you even when Rebecca hasn’t been around?” She asked, “I thought he just flirted with you sometimes when we were all together?”

“Well yeah, mainly,” Dani admitted, taking a deep breath before she implemented the new _honesty_ rule, “But I mean, the first night I met him when I was in the kitchen getting a drink… he hit on me… he told me he thought I was hot… and basically made it known that if I wanted to sleep with him I could… I just didn’t say anything because… well I guess I didn’t know how to bring it up.”

Jamie sighed and shook her head, “Y’know, I thought he might have stopped being a total prick, but no, I guess not,” She ran a hand through her hair and gave Dani a tight-lipped smile.

“I’m sorry… I should have said something soon—”

“No, don’t apologise, you haven’t done anything wrong…I do think Rebecca needs to know but it’s a bit late to bring it up to her now considering that was almost two weeks ago… just… if he does it again… tell her?”

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, I will… but will she even listen?”

“Yeah, maybe she will if you tell her… maybe if you approach with it, she’ll trust you more… you have no reason to lie… you haven’t even seen the bad side to Peter yet, trust me.”

“He flirts with me relentlessly even when his girlfriend is around… how is that not his worst side?”

“Because in Peter’s eyes, she isn’t his girlfriend, so he isn’t doing anything wrong, and he has done way worse than just flirt with some other girl… trust me… but Rebecca won’t listen to us… she’ll go through a phase when they have one of their off-again moments… but she’ll soon be back to being his little lap dog… trust me… it’s a vicious circle.” 

Dani gave a tight-lipped smile, “Do you think she’ll ever leave him, like, for good?”

Jamie shook her head, “I don’t think she’d leave him for a day… I remain hopeful that one day she’ll wake up and realise what a piece of shit he really is… but I just don’t see it happening any time soon… so until then, we’re stuck with the twat.”

Dani smiled and shook her head slowly, “I love that you just throw that word around when it comes to him, I don’t think I have ever heard that word sound better than it does when you say it,” Dani admitted.

“Really?” Jamie asked, a small smirk forming on her face as she tilted her head to the side slightly, Dani already regretted her words, she knew from first-hand experience that Jamie didn’t need anything to make her ego bigger, yet here she was, inadvertently doing just that, “What do you like about it?”

Dani shrugged, “I don’t know,” She admitted, “I guess I just like how you make more of an A sound when you say it, we don’t… or maybe I just like it when _you_ say it,” She divulged, she figured might as well really inflate Jamie’s ego if she was going to do it at all, she was going to do it properly.

“Hmm,” Jamie smiled, “I wonder what else you’d like if _I_ said it.”

Dani shrugged, “I, uh… I don’t know…” She replied, stammering over her words, Dani was sure she would like anything Jamie had to say to her, at this point, she was sure that Jamie could just read random words from the dictionary and she would listen more intently to that than she had most other things in her life.

“Maybe we’ll have to find out sometime,” Jamie’s smile only grew as a slight blush crept into Dani’s cheeks. She simultaneously hated and loved the effect Jamie had on her; she had never known herself to be so flawed by flirty comments before in her life.

But then Jamie would open her mouth and say the slightest thing to her, and she would be so overwhelmed she could hardly breathe.

She nodded her head slowly, “Yeah… maybe…” She replied, not knowing what more she could say to Jamie’s comment.

Jamie shook her head slowly, “Come on then, best get inside before you give me any bad ideas,” She joked as she headed up Hannah’s driveway, once again leaving Dani feeling flustered over her comment. As Dani’s head began to run wild with vivid images of the _bad ideas_ Jamie was talking about.

* * *

Just like with the girls’ nights back home, it hadn’t taken long for conversations to take a sharp turn into the territory of boys and crushes, with Rebecca overly gushing about Peter Quint and how attractive he was and how amazing he was, just like Jami had warned her she would. Dani knew that rose-tinted glasses were a thing, but she had never known anyone to be wearing as heavily tinted glass as Rebecca seemed to when it came to Peter, even after she had seen him flirting with Dani, and possibly countless other girls, Rebecca still seemed totally and utterly smitten by the man.

It didn’t matter what anyone else said to her, she seemed adamant that Peter Quint wasn’t as bad as everyone thought he was.

“I appreciate all of the concerns you have but none of you know Peter the way I do,” Rebecca shook her head slowly, dismissing yet another attempt from Hannah and Jamie for her to see the light and end things with him, “You don’t see how sweet he is or how caring he can be… you just see the cocky side to him… the side that jokes about things and puts on a brave face… that’s not the real him.”

“You keep saying that,” Jamie replied, “But that’s the only side we see… we just see how he speaks to you and how he is with other girls when you’re sat right next to him,” She shrugged her shoulders, “I’m sorry but you can’t expect us to like him when he’s hit on Dani relentlessly since she got here… I just—”

“Can we stop talking about this?” Rebecca asked, “I am so sick of having the same conversations all the time,” She sighed, “Why can’t you all just trust my opinions on this… I _know_ Peter… and I know what I am doing… I love him and I know that deep down he feels the same way about me… so can we please just move on from this?” She looked between the three other women sitting with her, each of them nodded their heads slowly, “Thank you…” She cleared her throat before turning her attention to Hannah, swiftly changing the topic of conversation from Peter, “Besides, we shouldn’t be talking about my love life when there are more pressing at hand… how are things going with you and Owen?” She asked.

Hannah gave a sheepish smile and looked down at her hands, shaking her head slowly before looking back up at her three friends, “Nothing is happening there,” She admitted, “We keep having these moments if we’re alone… or if we’re texting… and I always think he is going to ask me on a date or something… and then he just… doesn’t,” She shrugged, “I have started to come to terms with the fact that my feelings are most likely unrequited.”

“I’m sorry Hannah, but I have to say I think you’re really stupid if you think that,” Jamie shook her head slowly, “He’s mad for you and anyone can see that… I think he’s just a little nervous and needs a push in the right direction.”

Rebecca nodded her head in agreement, “Maybe you could drop some hints around him? I mean, not everyone is as bold as Peter was in pursuing me… could be that Owen is scared of rejection?”

“Maybe…” Hannah replied contemplating her options.

“If you like him why don’t you just ask him out? Or at the very least you could tell him how you feel?” Dani suggested with a small shrug, “I mean, seriously, what is the worst that could happen?”

“He could hear me?” Hanna replied sighing heavily.

“Maybe Dani’s right,” Jamie shrugged, “You’ve waited this long and he hasn’t done anything… least you could do is just tell him how you feel… at least then you’ll know where you stand… I mean… you know how I feel about things… just better to be honest, isn’t it?”

“I guess,” Hannah turned her mouth down slightly, “But… I was always told by my mum and grandma that a woman should _never_ make the first more… apparently, it’s an act of desperation… men do the chasing the women get chased.”

Dani rolled her eyes and shook her head, “I don’t believe that,” She replied, “I think it’s fair game for anyone to make the initial move… get rid of all these stupid gender roles and just go for what you want…”

Jamie nodded her head, “I agree… I mean, in same-sex relationships one of you just has to suck it up and make the first move… and I guess you’re gonna have to do the same…”

“What if he says no?”

“He won’t,” Jamie shook her head slowly, “Hannah, I wouldn’t tell you to go for this if I wasn’t absolutely sure that it would end well for you… trust me when I say I think you should just go for it.”

“I agree… look the worst that can happen is that he says no, or says he doesn’t feel the same way,” Dani shrugged.

“All I am hearing are reasons not to do it,” Hannah shook her head slowly.

“But the best-case scenario is that he says yes… or he asks you out because he likes you too… sometimes you have to take risks…” Dani admitted, suddenly sounding too much like her friends had all those years before when persuading her to get together with Eddie, “I mean, I took a risk once… and had I never dared Edmund to kiss me then we wouldn’t have ever started dating we’d still just be friends… going after what you want isn’t desperation.”

Her words came out before she could stop them, she suddenly regretted saying anything, she’d known now Jamie knew about Eddie that it was only a matter of time before the rest of her new friends found out too. She had just hoped they would find out in a better way. She had wanted all of them to find out in a better way. She just hadn’t known what way that had been.

Rebecca and Hannah shared a wide-eyed slightly confused look before turning their attention back to Dani, who wished she'd never opened her mouth to speak on the matter, “You have a boyfriend?” Rebecca asked, “You have a boyfriend, and you haven’t said anything until now?” The confusion was evident in her tone and all over her face, as her eyebrows furrowed cresting a deep crease in her forehead.

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Uh, yeah, he’s called Eddie.”

“How come you never mentioned him before?” Rebecca asked.

“Here we are talking all about our love lives and you’re sat there with a secret boyfriend none of us knew about…” Hannah shook her head, before turning her attention to Jamie, “Did you know about this?”

Dani dreaded Jamie’s answer, waiting for the truth to come out that she had well and truly kept Edmund hidden from all of them for weeks, instead, as she looked to Jamie, she saw the dark-haired woman nod her head slowly. “Uh, yeah… yeah I knew,” She replied her tone as casual as possible, “You can’t share a house with someone for two weeks and not know something like that,” She gave a light, humourless laugh, and Dani felt a stab of guilt deep in her stomach.

Jamie didn't have to cover for her, but she had. Jamie could have easily told the truth, the fact that she hadn't made Dani realise just how good a friend she had in Jamie in such a short space of time, and made her realise just how much Jamie actually thought of her, causing a fluttering feeling in the pit of her stomach. 

“How long have you been together?” Rebecca asked, turning her attention back to Dani, her soft voice pulling the blonde from her thoughts of Jamie, and bringing back to reality, and the topic of conversation, her relationship with Eddie. 

“Since we were fifteen,” She admitted with a small shrug.

“How come you’ve never mentioned him before now?” Hannah asked, “Well to us at least,” She added rolling her eyes slightly.

“I guess I just never saw the right time to talk about him until now,” She lied, she didn’t want to disclose the real reason to Hannah and Rebecca, she didn’t want to sit there and admit to them that the reason she hadn’t mentioned Eddie was that she hadn’t wanted Jamie to stop flirting with her.

That in all honesty, she still didn’t want Jamie to stop flirting with her, and that she was glad Jamie had kept some of the flirting element to their friendship. 

“Well, what’s he like?” Rebecca asked, a beaming smile making its way to her face.

Dani glanced at Jamie, taking in the small, tight-lipped smile she gave her, silently encouraging her to engage in the conversation, “He’s uh… he’s great…” Dani shrugged, not knowing what more she could say, she never really knew what to say when people asked her about Edmund, “Y’know he’s… kind and caring… smart…” She said listing off some of the first qualities that came to her head whenever she thought about Edmund, which she was now realising wasn’t all that much at all.

In fact, since she had been in England, she could only recall a handful of times she had genuinely thought about him, and not when comparing him to Jamie, or comparing the different ways they made her feel, just a genuine thought of Eddie because she missed him because she loved him... no, those thoughts had been few and far between, if existent at all. It struck her as odd that she felt this way when she would receive constant texts throughout the day from Eddie telling her he loved her, that he missed her, and that he couldn't stop thinking about her. 

Her mind always seemed to be elsewhere these days. 

Always thinking about soft brown curls, green eyes, delicate yet defined features, temptingly full lips, and an accent that seemed to make her weak. 

“Okay… but what does he look like?” Rebecca asked. 

"Uh," Dani shook her head slowly, “He’s… he’s cute…” She replied with a small shrug, glancing at Jamie once more to see her looking down and playing with her hands, at one time, she could have lied, would have lied even… would have sat there and made Eddie out to be the most attractive person she had ever seen in her whole life… but now that she knew Jamie...Now that she had seen just how attractive another person could be, regardless of gender, _cute_ seemed like a fitting term for Eddie, she pushed the thoughts from her mind and replaced them with thoughts of Eddie, a deep voice, dark hair, a bright smile, and glasses, that's what she should be thinking about. 

“He’s cute?” Hannah asked, “I mean, Dani… puppies are cute… but…”

"I don't know what to say to you," She admitted with a small shrug, "You asked me what he was like and I told you... he's cute... but his looks aren't the reason that I'm with him," Honestly, Eddie looks were definitely not the reason she was with him, she knew he was attractive, she could clearly see that, but it hadn't been his looks that had driven her to him, that had made her want to dare him to kiss her, his looks had _never_ played a part in it.

“Then why are you with him?” Rebecca asked, tilting her head to the side slightly, as Dani wracked her brain, trying to find a valid reason that she could tell Hannah, Rebecca, and Jamie as to why she was with Eddie.

She was with him because that’s what everyone around them expected, she was with him because her friends had suggested that she give him a chance all those years ago… suggested that she should give him a chance because he liked her, and they would be the perfect couple and it’s what Eddie wanted… what she should have wanted. But the more she thought about it, the more she knew she had never really wanted it at all. 

But she couldn’t say any of that, at least, not aloud.

She could never admit that.

* * *

Rebecca had seemed all too excited to know about Eddie, she had seemed a lot more excited than Dani felt as she gathered information about the man in question, her excitement only seemed to grow when she found out he was in England on the exchange program too and was only two hours away in Birmingham.

She’d asked a barrage of questions about if Eddie would be visiting and if they could go on a double date with her and Peter, Dani had tried her hardest to maintain the same level of enthusiasm as she’d talk about the likely event of when she would be seeing Eddie again. 

After a while of talking about Edmund, the three of them had been able to convince Hannah to tell Owen the truth about how she felt, with Rebecca using Dani and Eddie’s relationship as the perfect example of how well things could end, even though, at first, she had been apprehensive about Hannah making the first move too. Dani was thankful, that if one thing came out of their conversation tonight, it was the chance that Hannah and Owen could become more than friends.

The drive back to Jamie’s house had been void of conversation, which had been unexpected for Dani, with one of Jamie’s playlists pumping through the speakers, and Jamie singing along quietly being the only noise around them. Dani had tried so hard to focus on Jamie’s voice, it was the first time she’d heard her sing, and though she could barely make it out, she found herself loving it, her accent seemed to be lost as she sang, and her voice was a slightly higher pitch, and much softer than she had ever thought it would be.

She had always had a soft spot for people who could sing, or play instruments, and knowing Jamie could sing made the conflicting feelings she felt that much worse. Dani was starting to wonder if there was anything at all to dislike about Jamie. She couldn’t understand why people at school didn’t share the same sentiment she did, she hadn’t been there long but already she’d heard rumours about the other woman and had seen how people looked at her. She wondered if there was something she was missing about Jamie.

If there was something, she was yet to figure out about her that would shatter the image she had built up in her head. So far, Dani only had positive things to say about her. She was kind, funny, smart, confident, charismatic, and talented too, apparently, then there was the way she would look at Dani, the way she spoke about her or to her, and how it made Dani’s heart rate pick up like nothing else she had ever known.

Just from the small looks, Jamie would give her, and the comments she’d make, Dani could safely say that she had felt more excitement in a matter of weeks than she had in her whole relationship with Eddie.

“What are you smiling at?” The sound of Jamie’s voice brought her back to reality, as she looked at the bemused expression on Jamie’s face, she felt a blush rise in her cheeks. She hadn’t realised she’d been smiling; she hadn’t even realised that Jamie had caught her looking… and smiling… she could feel her heart rate increasing as embarrassment settled deep within her system. “You’re just sat there… staring at me and smiling, like a little weirdo,” Jamie chuckled, shaking her head slowly, “Are you alright?” She asked, glancing at the road before she looked back at Dani, watching her carefully.

Dani nodded her head slowly, “Yeah… I’m… I’m fine…” She stammered.

“Do I have something on my face?” She asked, her green eyes turning slightly softer, a hint of worry residing in them as she waiting expectantly for a reply.

“No,” Dani shook her head, “No… you were singing… and you just have a really nice voice,” She admitted, sticking to their pact of honesty, and knowing that telling the truth was far better than any lie she could have possibly come up with.

Especially when Jamie was looking at her like _that_.

“I do?” She asked, “No one’s ever told me that before,” She admitted with a small shrug, a bright smile spreading across her face at the simple compliment, and effectively making Dani’s heart skip several beats. She was sure that she had never seen anything better than Jamie’s smile, and every time she saw it, she just felt more certain of that. She loved it even more when she was the cause of it. Like right now, when one, tiny little thing had made Jamie smile so brightly, a small crinkle appearing on her nose as she did so.

“No one?” Dani asked.

Jamie shook her head slowly, “No…”

“No one at all has _ever_ told you that?”

“Why is that so hard to believe?” Jamie asked with a slight chuckle.

“I guess because you have a really good voice…” Dani shrugged, “So… I mean... no one? Not even one of the girls you’ve been with?”

Jamie shook her head slowly, “No… they never heard me sing…” She admitted, “I mean, what I had with them was more of a quick fling…” She turned her mouth down slightly, glancing at Dani again, trying to gauge her reaction.

“I’m assuming by quick fling you mean a one-night stand?”

“Well, some of them lasted a little longer than that, but usually, yeah… why that an issue?” She asked, a slight look of worry edging its way onto her face as she pulled into her driveway.

Dani shook her head, “No… nothing wrong with it at all, I guess… I was more curious than anything, I mean, you hardly said anything tonight… especially when we got talking about relationships and crushes…”

“I didn’t say anything because I don’t have much to say on the relationship front,” She admitted, “I mean, I’ve never actually had a girlfriend… or a boyfriend…” She shrugged, “They both know all about my… sexploitations…” She gave a small smile as she settled on the word, “So there was no need to go into it again… I mean I know you don’t know but…”

“You’ve never been in a relationship?”

Jamie shook her head slowly, “No.”

“How come?” Dani asked, “I mean… I doubt you’ve not had the opportunity,” She spoke softly, “I honestly can’t imagine someone not wanting to be with you… have you seen yourself?” She asked, smiling slightly when she saw another smile flash across Jamie’s face.

“Shit, Poppins, you’re making this whole having a crush on you a lot harder… especially when you say shit like that…” She admitted, “I’ve not had a proper relationship because I’ve never really liked anyone enough…” She shrugged her shoulders, “It’s very rare I get a crush…” She trailed off and looked away from Dani, staring straight ahead at her house, as if she'd said too much as if she was waiting for the other shoe to drop and for Dani to back away from her. 

_I like you more than I thought I would._

_I like you in a way I didn't think I would._

Jamie words suddenly sounded a lot clearer to her, carrying so much more weight than she had first expected than she had first known, she couldn’t imagine how hard it must have been for Jamie, to be honest with her about her crush, how vulnerable it must have made her feel last night and again tonight. Again, she felt a stab of guilt deep in her stomach. Jamie could be honest with her, Jamie had been honest with her from the beginning, and here she was, hardly even being able, to be honest with herself.

As if acting on instinct she reached her hand out, placing it over the top of Jamie’s, her breath catching in her throat slightly at the feeling of Jamie’s cool skin against her own,

She felt her heart hammering heavily in her chest, watching as Jamie looked down at their hands before looking back at her, something hidden behind her green eyes, something that Dani couldn’t quite detect, something that made her feel breathless.

"Thank you for being honest with me... I think _anyone_ would be really lucky to be with you... I know I feel lucky knowing that you have a crush on me," She admitted giving Jamie's hand a gentle reassuring squeeze, silently telling her that she wasn't going anywhere, that nothing Jamie said could change the way she felt about her. 

"Yeah?" Jamie asked, her voice quiet, unsure. 

Dani nodded her head slowly and took a deep breath before speaking again “Yeah, I mean... you’re pretty damn amazing," She could have sworn her heart was about to burst out of her ribcage as she spoke to the other woman, giving Jamie the most honesty she had since they first met. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if anyone will be interested or not, but I have decided to start a Tumblr that is linked to this account because there is no messaging feature on Archive which I think sucks!! Feel free to come and check it out, or even just to say hi, or ask any questions you might have about this fic or my other fic Stop Me From Falling, or just for a chat about our favourite 80s lesbian couple. My tumbrl is colour-outside-the-liness . tumblr. com (it's a secondary account so unfortunately, I won't be able to follow anyone back on that account)


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